Renegade Dragoon
by YourImagination
Summary: Innocence is like Life's virginity.  Once someone takes it away, it's gone forever.  EDITING FINISHED.  WAIT 30 MINS.  CHPT 14 IN PROGRESS
1. Human Shell in the Tank

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 1: Human Shell in the Tank**

Experiment Document 1

_Project D is now under way. The test subject is female, 20 years old, pale complexion, approximately 5 foot 8 and a half. As an infantry person, there is no Mako present in her system. The test subject has been injected with Bahamut strain cells and it is too early to detect a reaction. The subject resisted incarceration and had to be sedated. As this experiment as been approved by Chairman Shinra, it is our expectation that this experiment will result in the ultimate bio weapon since the Makonoids. It is hoped that with the infusion of Mako with the Bahamut cells that rapid change will occur. _

Professor Daemon finished typing his document and continued to observe the woman behind the glass. Dressed in her Shinra infantry uniform, she looked at peace, yet conflicted. Her eyes were closed, hiding her hazel eyes, and her short layered brown hair moved with the flow of water in the tank. She was dead to the world, unaware of her surroundings. While nothing was noticeable on the surface, her insides showed a different story. Her brain was aware of the foreign cells in the blood stream, and her body was fighting a losing battle against the new cells. The darker cells overwhelmed her immune system, sending messages to the brain to accommodate for new additions to her physical structure. And while she was unaware of her surroundings, she was plagued by dark memories, nightmares of things she feared and hated.

Experiment Document 2

_Mako has now been infused with the test subject. Soon we should see a change in the anatomical structure of her body. We will see if her body will adapt to the new genetic changes, or if she will die. If the project is successful, Shinra will see the beginning of a new combat unit._

Professor Daemon's lab had so many documents and unfinished experiments that security was needed. The woman behind the glass had a former comrade as one of the infantrymen who guarded her water-filled prison. Whenever he went on and off duty, he'd steal a glance at the unconscious being, knowing that somewhere in that sedated shell, she was a living human. He went by the name of Breno, a dark haired man with a bushy mono-brow with hair like a messy mop. He was bulky, but the training slimmed him down just a little. He felt he was in no danger, and hardly ever wore his helmet in the lab.

'Never thought I'd see you like this, Rena,' he thought.

He had professed to loving her a while ago, but her obvious disinterest and moody demeanour managed to die down his urges. She liked him as a friend, but grew tired of his vindictive and possessive manner. She couldn't be seen with the other infantrymen without Breno feeling a stab of jealousy. His childish remarks often prompted sarcastic, if not annoyed, remarks from Rena. It often led to arguments between them, often consisting of Breno calling her a 'slag' when she clearly had no sexual relations with any of the men, and was not interested in any of them. As he stared into the tank, he silently reminisced of their time in Shinra. He remembered how Rena thought about joining SOLDIER. Naturally, he didn't like the idea. Right now, he wondered what had driven Rena to attempt to run away from the army, and how the science department thought she would make a good specimen. Or why Rufus Shinra gave Rena the opportunity to redeem herself instead of imprisoning her.

Breno saw Rena twitch in her water-filled cell. Though it was more of a spasm. It was only momentary.

"Ah, a movement!" said Professor Daemon. "The B cells are doing their work."

Small black webbed dragon-like wings sprouted from her back. Breno was shocked. She was slowly losing her humanity. And what were B cells? Professor Daemon walked back to his computer and began typing again.

Experiment Document 3

_The test subject has grown wings, but they are small. The size of two average sized hands each. Not enough to take to the skies, however, this transformation is a break through. Further observation shall see if the wings increase in wing span, and if more physical changes will occur. The test subject has not awakened yet, and must not awaken before the transformation is complete._

Breno hoped with all his heart that he was not responsible for Rena's attempted escape, for if he was, he would not be able to forgive himself. And if Rena emerged from the experiment in a new form, chances of forgiveness from her would be scant. Considering the Science Department's track record, it would be unlikely that the new Rena would be docile once she emerged from the tank. She was the first to be experimented on in this manner, so she was an untested bio weapon. The first of her kind. Rena was still unaware, and one would wonder where her mind was at this very moment.

**This chapter has been edited and hopefully cleaned of all errors. I have added three new sentences to the last paragraph, replacing the very awkward sentence.**

**I hope this chapter wasn't too boring or anything. In the next chapter, you will see what makes Rena tick. The idea of this fic is to not only create characters which are believable, but also to explore what test subjects go through during experiments. Since we never get to see what they see in their unconscious state in the games, I think it would be great to give some idea what it would be like. For example, what do they dream about? Are they reliving events from their past? Are they in a coma state, and can they hear what people are saying on the outside?**


	2. Behind Closed Doors

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 2: Behind Closed Doors**

Shut inside the water capsule, Rena remained dead to the world. She was unaware that she had two small black wings, as a side-effect of the Bahamut cells. She was losing her humanity on the outside, but on the inside, her memories were vivid, and played out before her like a dream. While she could relive her life, she couldn't change anything about it. The experiment transported her back to her childhood, at an orphanage in a wasteland beyond the awareness of the nearest great city of Midgar, too far from Nibelheim or Gongaga. There was no name for this place, surrounded by desert sand, isolating the children who lived there, and the adults who took care of them. The orphanage also served as a boarding school, preparing the children for their lives ahead. The youngest children at that time were around three or four, and the eldest being around sixteen or seventeen. Boys and girls. Children were brought to the orphanage, but none were adopted out. The outside world didn't know they existed, hence the education of those children were left to their caretakers.

Rena was five when she could first remember being there. She had no idea who her parents were, or what they were like. She played with the other kids there, who were very much in the same boat as her. Her brown hair flowed just below her shoulders, soft as silk. She was tall for her age, and rather cute. Most of the kids were cute, and curious as cats. They all had to wear the same thing. White shirts and blue skirts with a blue sailor-style scarf and dress shoes and white socks for the girls, and white shirts and blue shorts and scarf and shoes and white socks for the boys. From the youngest to the oldest, their upbringing was the same. They had to walk in step with each other, in two straight lines, and absolutely no physical contact. There were a few women around, but the orphanage was male dominated.

Rena was at the back of the line in the hallway, marching next to a boy her age. He had short black hair with red eyes and pale complexion. Rena never spoke to him. She found him a bit scary for a little boy. Yet she heard his name spoken by a tutor the other day. Luke Valentine. With a name like that, why was he in the orphanage? Rena had a last name, but it was beyond her memory. As the class walked past a door, a female scream was heard from that room. A young female voice, and the grunting of an older male. It wasn't screams of pleasure, but of pain and fear. And none of the adults stopped to intervene.

"Rape! RAPE!" screamed the female voice. Rena stopped walking, to stare at the door.

"What's rape?" she innocently asked, to no-one in particular. She heard stomping footsteps approach her. Her tutor, a man with thinning brown hair and big glasses stood, menacingly towering over her as she looked up to face him.

"Why have you stopped walking?" he demanded. "Get back in line!"

"Aren't you going to help that girl?" asked Rena. "I think she's in trouble-"

She was interrupted with a smack on the cheek.

"You haven't listened to the rules!" the man roared. "We don't meddle in other peoples affairs! It's called minding your own business! What happens in a room STAYS IN THAT ROOM! NOW GET BACK IN LINE!"

Reduced to a blubbering mess, Rena obeyed. As young as she was, she knew it wasn't right. She spotted Luke glaring at the tutor, and copping a cane to the back of the knee for not minding his own business. Rena struggled within herself to understand the world she was growing up in. She didn't know anything else, and yet she knew that it wasn't normal for children to be treated like that. She was only five, but it made her sick all the same. She stepped into line with Luke, who held her hand while the tutor wasn't looking.

Along with her awareness of other girls and boys being molested, Rena was not exempt from the vile treatment from the adults who were meant to look after them. It began a year ago with bed time stories, and then turned to tickling after bed time stories. And as the year had passed and brought along a new year, she was introduced to contact with which she was not familiar. Things which Rena had tried to forget throughout the rest of her childhood and her adolescent years. Her first kiss was taken from her by a middle-aged man. The same man who, night after night, not only continued to kiss her without consent, also felt her up under her pyjama top and down her...

Adult Rena screamed within herself at the memory and pushed it further away.

Inside the water capsule, dark vein like lines decorated Rena's forehead and down the sides of her face, from her eyes to her jaw. In silent loathing hatred and anger, her nails slowly grew longer as claws that tore through the ends of her gloves. And yet she was still unaware of her changes.

Experiment Document 4

_The test subject is continuing the change physically. It appears that underlying emotions, being anger and hatred, are influencing the changes. It is my theory that underwater incarceration and the combination of mako and B cells are intertwining with her memories and feelings, and amplifying her inner thoughts and showing them physically. But to prove this theory, I would need to get inside her head and find out what she's thinking about. Unfortunately at this stage, no such technology exists._

Breno stole a look at Rena's ever changing form, and wondered how her body could be taking so easily to the foreign antigens that invaded her. The way her hands were tensed in the fists she made in her sleep, he knew that anger had motivated the rapid change.

**More editing. It's more specific, as was recommended, but I want to remain vague until later chapters when Rena deals with her problems in her own time, and on her own terms. **

**That concludes this chapter. The next one explores the impact of Rena's early upbringing on her childhood and how she could hate men so much, but yet be taken in by Luke Valentine, who she somehow knows is no ordinary child. Is he the son of Vincent? Maybe... But at this stage, he's more of a reference. This is an FF7 fan fic, and even though I have original characters, I will include the ones we all love. Just see how I do it.**


	3. Good Adults, Bad Adults

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 3: Good Adults, Bad Adults**

When Rena was eight, she realised that Luke wasn't her age, but older. She heard one of the tutors saying that Luke had to be kept back, and the tutor had called him a retard. He was at least eleven, but she knew he wasn't retarded. He just didn't respond well to their teaching methods. Rena flinched whenever a male tutor would walk past her, and it was a little more than just a matter of being physically punished. She couldn't even sit up straight if a tutor leaned over her desk to see how much work had been done.

The children played outside, during one of the rare times that they were ever allowed outside. Three tutors watched from a distance so that no-one would run away. One could understand if the purpose of their presence was to encourage good behaviour, but the true purpose was to hide the truth from the outside world.

Luke and Rena were playing noughts and crosses in the dirt with sticks. They didn't have much to go by as far as amusement went, but it was enough to cling on to what little happiness they had. But the mood went downhill when Rena noticed Luke staring at the bruises on her arms.

"What are they from?" he asked quietly.

"Nothing," Rena lied. She wanted to tell him that a tutor had grabbed her roughly by the arm and smacked her for back-chatting, and later at night held her down to stop her from evacuating from the bedroom. Rena shook the memory away, feeling a shiver every time she thought about it. To make matters worse, that tutor was one of the three who were watching the children.

"You can't lie to me," said Luke. "I see everything."

"If you see everything, then you know what it's from," said Rena.

"I mean it in a slightly different way," said Luke. Trying to understand what he meant, Rena looked up at him, trying to read him. His intense red eyes were partially obscured by his fringe. His hair was a bit long for a boy's. He resisted a hair cut in order to rebel against the tutors, to show his contempt. At this stage, no amount of canings would induce him to get his hair cut. "These people, who say they are here to look after us, aren't looking after us. You understand me, don't you?"

"I guess so," said Rena. "But I'd rather not think about it..."

"What I'm saying is," he began. "we don't have to live with this. I'm going to run away. You should come with me."

"Run away?" she asked. "They'll kill us...!"

"Not if they don't find us," replied Luke. "So, are you coming or what?"

Rena hesitated. Where would they go? And if the tutors didn't find them, someone or something else would. And they were in the middle of nowhere. Did Luke even know anything about directions? Rena certainly didn't. She was afraid. She had seen what had happened to kids who had previously tried to escape. The punishments were enormous. Some had almost died. And as much as she wanted to escape, there was the fear that the tutor who appeared at her bedside every night would be waiting for her everywhere she went. And at least the kids got fed at the orphanage.

"I don't think it's worth it," she finally replied.

"Trust me," said Luke. "It is."

And when night came, and then the next day, she never saw him again. He really did run away. The tutors were anxious and angry. Rena was worried that she would get in trouble, because she knew about it. But they never went to her. Her tutor had paced around the corridor near her room, muttering, "If he meets some people, and the authorities find out, we'll lose our license, and we'll be imprisoned...!"

It had been a month since Luke ran away. And the orphanage was visited by a mysterious man in black clothes and a red mantle, with long black hair and red eyes. His boots and gauntlet were golden, and he emitted a dark aura from his anger at such injustice. He stormed through the halls until he reached the administration office, where Rena was sent for fighting with the tutor, so that she could receive due punishment by the head of the orphanage.

"Can I help you?" asked the man known as Cleaver. He was a thin man with big glasses and light brown hair. His eyes were grey, and he reeked of the worst cologne. He gazed upon the seemingly young man with disdain, as though the man had interrupted something extremely important.

"I believe you had an orphan here by the name of Luke Valentine," said the man. "I heard that you and your supervisors are not doing your job, and I came to investigate. My comrades will be here soon. What have you got to say for yourself?"

"No child by that name exists here," said Cleaver, hoping to fool the man. At least, it was true at the time.

"At least, not now," said the man. "He came to us and told us everything. He was wandering around the middle of nowhere and the streets because you couldn't help yourselves. You and the tutors collectively abused him and the other children. Your job was to look after them. You've proven that you can't do that. So give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you." As he said this, he raised his three-barrelled gun and aimed it at Cleaver.

Rena looked up in awe of the man. She hated men, but she somehow felt safe in his presence.

"Uh, you have the wrong place," stammered Cleaver. "Y-you see... T-there's another orphanage... T-that way... I'll give you the directions..."

"Guilt is written all over you," the man interjected. "Luke is my flesh and blood, and I only recently learned of his existence, and his whereabouts. How he ended up in your care, I have no idea. All I can say is that whoever left him here had a lot of trust in you. Now... I want you to gather all your staff right now! Do it or I'll blow your head off!"

Cleaver hastily ran to the microphone.

"All staff please make your way to the office," he ordered. "All students remain in your seats until further notice."

The staff, men and women came into the office, surprised by their mysterious visitor.

"Everyone sit on the floor now!" ordered the man. Rena went to leave her chair to sit on the floor when the man looked over at her and said, "No, you're fine. Stay on the chair, or go and be with your classmates. You may not want to see this."

Rena stayed where she was. She wanted to see them get what they deserved. She hoped the man would shoot them all. She thought about what he said. Was he Luke's father? He looked exceptionally young. Maybe he was a big brother?

She saw a man with spiky blonde hair in black pants, black zip-up sleeveless top, one single black sleeve, black boots and a large sword walk in.

"You're finally here, Cloud," said the man in red.

"Just in time, right, Vincent?" replied Cloud.

"What's the mission status?" asked Vincent.

"Barret, Tifa and Yuffie are assembling the children outside," said Cloud. "Cid's making sure that the airship is fit for their safe evacuation. What's this girl doing here?"

"Sent to the principal's office, I assume," said Vincent with a chuckle. "I'll be fine here. You'd best escort the girl to the others. I'll deal with these dogs by myself."

"Keep it clean," said Cloud.

"Don't worry," said Vincent.

Rena hesitated before allowing herself to be led out the door with Cloud. Who were these people? Where did they come from? She felt uncomfortable with Cloud. Perhaps it was the way he dressed, or the sword he carried? She then realised that it would be a long time before she'd ever trust males again. She walked with him outside and was led to a dark-haired chesty woman.

"Here, Tifa," said Cloud. "She's really tense. She's been really quiet, and I can't even get her to tell me her name. I suspect something really..." he trailed off.

"Well then," said Tifa, with a caring smile. "We'll do with her what we're going to do with other children and make her feel comfortable. You don't have to worry anymore, okay? We're used to helping orphans." She ruffled Rena's hair as she escorted her into the airship. Cloud stood there for a moment, scratching his head. Yuffie was still outside the airship.

"Yuffie!" Cloud called out.

"Yes, Cloud?" Yuffie responded.

"I'm going to check up on Vincent," he said. "Tell the others to take off when you're all ready. We'll catch up later."

"Again?" questioned Yuffie. "Alright..."

Rena looked out of the airship as it took off, and saw the hated building engulfed in flames. Tifa knelt down beside her.

"I know you'll find it hard to trust us after everything you've been through," she said. "But you'll see the difference between us and them."

That last memory slightly slowed down the process. Though Rena was still conflicted from within, and it would be a matter of time before she would be a fully-fledged bio-weapon.

**In the next chapter, you will see why Rena joined Shinra even though she was raised by AVALANCHE. Naturally, Cloud will not approve, but Rena knows where her loyalties lie. Just read what happens next.**


	4. It Was You

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 4: It Was You**

Memory after memory continued to haunt Rena in her dark slumber. Breno continued to guard her faithfully, and wondered why Professor Daemon gave him the creeps. Perhaps it was the same reason Rena didn't like him.

When Rena was eighteen, Luke had left the safe sanctuary of AVALANCHE.

"Where are you going?" asked Rena.

"I'm going to find out how I came to exist," replied Luke. "Even though I know I'm Vincent's clone, I am curious to find out how and why. I need to understand why he would even need a clone when he's immortal..."

"Can't you ask him?" asked Rena.

"Vincent doesn't know," said Luke, and he added, "Nor does he want to know. I suspect that Shinra is behind it. I mean, Shinra always likes to play with genetics."

"It could be dangerous," said Rena.

"Life is dangerous," said Luke. "I need to find out things... If I find out anything, I'll let you know."

And Rena watched as Luke carried a bag on his right shoulder and walked away. The others wouldn't like this. But his departure inspired her to try and find things out about herself. Perhaps she could track her parents down. Or even better... Track down that tutor who had relentlessly molested her. The young dragoon would spear him to death, that dirty m... She calmed herself, but did not calm her resolve. All the records would be at the Shinra Electrical Company Archives, free for all to access. Now if only she could remember his name.

She went to the archives in Midgar and found the records of the old orphanage. Somehow the staff managed to save their paperwork while the place went up in flames. She was sure some of them were killed. There were photos of the people who were supposed to look after her and the other kids. Then she found him. That black haired clean-shaven face, with the look of a shady character, a sex offender, perhaps. Mr Geoffrey Daemon.

"Alright, where is he now?" she pondered. The records tracked him back to the Science Department at Shinra. Now that she knew where he was, she had to decide on a course of action. She could murder him, but she had to get close enough to him. That's when she decided that she would join Shinra. She didn't share their philosophy, but she didn't believe that she'd get very close if she joined with AVALANCHE to do the same job. Besides, she wanted that glory to be all hers. She would have revenge, and it would taste so sweet. She went back to AVALANCHE headquarters, which was really just an underground basement sort of thing underneath a bar called Seventh Heaven.

"Join Shinra?" Cloud questioned. He wasn't in his twenties anymore, and he'd started to allow stubble to grow on his face. "Do you realise what you're getting yourself into?"

"I am well aware of the risks," said Rena. "But if he still remains out there, how many more kids is he going to interfere with?"

"We could go with you," offered Tifa.

"No, thanks," said Rena. "I have got to do this. If I can work my way up, I can get close to him, and take my shot at him. You may not realise this, but this is my fight."

Tifa looked over at Cloud, to see if he could be firmer with Rena.

"Well, you've been warned," said Cloud. "But you're not our daughter, and you're eighteen. Why would you need our permission?"

"I wasn't asking," said Rena, feeling a bit huffy. "I was just letting you all in on my plan. And I can see you don't support me, and that's fine. I don't need you anyway."

"Uh, Rena," Tifa broke in. "How many female Shinra infantry or SOLDIERs have you seen? None."

"There are chicks in the Turks," Rena pointed out. "And there's a first time for everything. Look, you may not agree with me, but..."

"That's right," said Cloud. "We don't agree. But it's your life. And I'm not interested. If you say you're going to do something, do it."

"Okay, I will," said Rena. In five minutes, she was packed and she jumped in her truck and drove off.

Tifa gave Cloud the dirtiest evils.

"What?" he said. "She's her own person. She'll have to make her own mistakes in order to learn."

"I just hope nothing happens to her," said Tifa. "You realise Barret's going to be all over you because of this?"

"Barret can get used to it," said Cloud. "He doesn't own her either."

Rena spent the best of a year in training in the infantry, and the other year she served Shinra doing night patrol. She hoped that if she could prove herself, she could be in SOLDIER, and get even closer to her goal. The training was how she met Breno. It was also how her troubles began.

One day she spotted Professor Daemon in the hallway, while she was on her way to reporting to her superiors. They locked eyes, and he grinned evilly as he continued on his way. Rena was armed, yet her finger refused to touch the trigger. His chuckle invaded her mind.

Inside the tank, it suddenly felt cramped. Breno heard movement in the tank, and so did Professor Daemon. The black wings suddenly expanded to full length and size, and black horns emerged from Rena's skull, and were so long that they curved down to the length of her shoulder blades. Her eyes flew open, with a golden glow. Her hair went from brown to pale blonde. She used her wings to push on the sides of the tank, and she used her fists to shatter the glass in front of her, causing water to splash everywhere. Breno's partner opened fire as she emerged from her prison, but Rena grabbed that gun and smacked the infantryman unconscious. She grabbed Breno by the throat and threw him to the other side of the room.

"Slag, am I?" she hissed so that he could hear. She then grabbed Professor Daemon by the throat and growled. "It was you...!"

A miniature army of infantrymen burst through the doors of the laboratory, ready to fire. With a warcry, Rena emitted a ray of energy that tore a hole in the roof, and she took off through the hole, with Daemon as her hostage. When she was out in the fresh air, it was night time, and already Shinra helicopters were out, ready to take her down.

"Don't kill me," the professor pleaded. "You need me!" 

"The only thing I ever needed you for was to leave me be!" Rena snapped. "You're the reason I joined, and now that I have you here, I don't need to be a part of Shinra anymore! It all ends here!"

She flew up to the top of the Shinra building, and used her claws to jab him in the chest, piercing his heart. She then dropped him from the building, and watched him fall, guaranteeing his death. She then fled far away from the building, and flew to the vast outskirts, where she landed and soon passed out.


	5. Sending the Turks

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 5: Sending the Turks**

Professor Daemon sat on a chair in front of Professor Hojo's desk. Though his hair was still long and tied back, it had gone grey.

"Phoenix Downs are wonderful, aren't they?" said Hojo with a chuckle. "If I hadn't been there when the army caught you at the bottom, you'd have drifted off to the Lifestream, and I'd be bereft of my best pupil."

"The girl thinks I'm dead," said Daemon. "She won't be back."

"Once she realises, she will come back," replied Hojo. "She has to. She's incomplete. All the test subjects before her proved to be failures. We still haven't cured anyone of degradation. If she shows symptoms, she will be back. Count on it."

"She wasn't like any of Hollander's subjects," said Daemon. "She has Bahamut cells, not Gillian cells. She has dragon wings, two of them. Not like the lousy one-winged angels that once graced the planet."

"You forget about one perfect specimen," said Hojo.

"Your creation?" questioned Daemon. "Sephiroth? Where is he then? Trapped in the lifestream?"

"He's something of an enigma," said Hojo. "But never mind him. Worry about your own experiment. And I promise you, she'll be back."

Meanwhile, in the Turk's sector of Shinra, Tseng was briefing Reno and Rude, and their newest agent.

"I want you to meet Magan O'Neil," said Tseng. While Reno was checking her out, Rude stayed focused. Magan had dark brown wavy hair, piercing light blue eyes, fair skin, and was fairly tall, two feet taller than Rena. She was classy in her Turk uniform. She wore it properly, unlike Reno.

"She will be joining you on your latest assignment," Tseng continued. "She'll also be working independently. I gather you've all heard what happened in the Science Department. Former infantry turned genetically engineered being Rena Cowell escaped lastnight, injuring two infantrymen and attempted to kill Professor Daemon." On the wall was a screen showing Rena's mugshot with stats on the right-hand side. "What we know about her is her age, twenty years, her preferred class is Dragoon. She was conceived in a Shinra lab from donated sex cells before she was left behind by adoptive parents who did not survive the Geostigma, she was taken to an orphanage with a shady history, and was rescued and raised by anti-Shinra group AVALANCHE. We understand that while she is not affiliated with AVALANCHE, we believe that she joined the army in hopes of finding Professor Daemon and killing him. She has been tried for desertion and hence made a test subject of her target. The reasons for her desertion are unknown. Doesn't make sense somehow. So that's the summary. Your job is to find her before the army does, and bring her back here. Follow any leads necessary. Magan, you have personal ties to her, I understand."

Trying to remain professional, she replied, "Yes, but all have been severed."

"Then you'll have to repair them," said Tseng. "If you can find her, gain her trust."

"I'll do my best," said Magan. She didn't find the idea very appealing. She couldn't abide Rena's presence in any circumstance. After all, she had tried to forget their past, and it wasn't the orphanage. Magan wasn't there. They had met in Shinra, and that was why Rena didn't want to be a Turk.

"So, where do we start looking?" asked Reno. "The wasteland?"

"Sounds logical," said Rude. "She wouldn't want to attract our attention to AVALANCHE."

Meanwhile, at Seventh Heaven...

"She's stirred up the hornet's nest now," said Cloud.

"Now the Turks are gonna be on us!" Barret complained.

"The Turks aren't stupid," said Tifa. "They'd know about her connection to us, and they'd know to find her here if she came back. But she hasn't. She must have gone to the outskirts, and that's where they'd look."

"Off to retrieve another sample," murmured Cloud.

"She could have saved herself all that trouble by not going there in the first place!" Barret growled. "And no-one try to defend her!"

"Well, we can't desert her," said Yuffie. "Maybe we should try to find her before the Turks do. Or the army, for that matter."

Vincent stepped into the room, having heard the conversation.

"Luke's been wandering the outskirts for years," he said. "He'll get to her first. I guarantee it."

"I hope so," said Tifa, quietly.

And Luke had found her. Rena was in her human form, lying face-down on the dirt. The sun shined on her form, warming up her infantry uniform. Luke's hair flowed half-way down his back, with the front of his hair cut short. Luke was dressed in his SOLDIER trousers, boots, suspenders and shoulder pads, with nothing else on top, revealing his toned body. Carrying his standard issue sword to make sure there was no danger around, he picked up his childhood friend and slung her over his shoulder and took her back to his camp.

The camp consisted of a beige cloth hanging on sticks, with the glowing remnants of a fire, and a few of his belongings in his bag. He lay her down on his blankets. He saw how pale she was, despite the heat. Using his thumb, he opened one of her eyelids, and found the tell-tale glow of mako.

"Mako addiction," he murmured. "Damn you, Shinra..."

He found the tips of her gloves were torn, yet her fingers were in tact. And it was hard not to notice the small black wings, which had left holes in the back of her infantry top. Rena slowly came to, feeling as though she had been asleep for a very long time, and very sick. She tried to sit up, but was unsuccessful.

"Careful," said Luke. "You're suffering from mako addiction."

"Luke," she said. "What... argh! What are you doing out here?"

"Hiding," said Luke with a sly grin. "What have they done to you? What's with the wings?"

"Wings?" Rena questioned. When she sat up, she looked over her shoulder. She looked away quickly, remembering everything that happened. "I don't know what they did... All I know is, I've become a monster..."

"No, Rena," said Luke. "You're no monster. You still have your humanity. You haven't gone mindless."

"Last night I lost it," Rena admitted. "I killed Daemon..."

"He deserved it," said Luke. "You went in there and you tracked him down. Your job is done."

"Yeah, but I walked away with a lot of things I didn't want," replied Rena bitterly. "I had to put up with being harassed in all the wrong ways. A so-called friend accused me of sleeping around and called me a slag. I thought he knew me better... And he was one of the grunts guarding me in the lab. I attacked him with force... I wonder if he survived that..." 

"Well, you can do without people like that," said Luke. "You don't need anyone. You got me!" He added a grin to try and cheer her up.

"True," she said. "The Turks will be after me..."

"They're after me too," said Luke. "I deserted. Ha! But once I got what I came for, I didn't need to stay there. Besides, after all the trouble they put Vincent and the others through, I couldn't wait to leave."

"What did you find out?" asked Rena.

"Well," Luke began. "I guess I've always known that I wasn't conceived normally. I read up on Vincent. Turns out that he's genetically engineered, but he was assigned to guard a pretty lady. And some of his DNA was kept in the lab, for Hojo to try and duplicate immortality. I don't know if he succeeded, but I was the product of the experiment. I had a surrogate mother, whose name and information is classified... She died, and I was left in the orphanage. I guess I wasn't needed anymore. Unless he's watching from somewhere... But my guess was correct. I am a clone of Vincent. And I was told my name. It was written on a note. I guess Hojo knew I'd return."

"I guess we both got something out of it," said Rena. "I wish you'd stayed though. You could have looked after me." She chuckled with that.

"I can look after you now," said Luke. "Maybe we should head back to Midgar. Go and see the others."

"Yeah, but I don't want to attract the Turks to them," said Rena.

"It will probably happen anyway," replied Luke. "Before we do anything, we'll have to do something about your clothes. You won't get any better wearing mako-soaked duds."

"True," said Rena. "But after that, we'll need to make a plan."

**Slight editing... So, you don't like me leaving things out? I'm doing it on purpose you know. Keep you reading, that sort of thing. All will be explained later, I promise you. Sometimes, to go forward, you must go back. This is about people reflecting on their past so that they can move forward. "Move forward." Julia Gillard's favourite phrase... Goodness me...**


	6. No Love Lost

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 6: No Love Lost**

"Here, put these on," said Luke.

"Okay, turn around," said Rena. "And _no peeking!_"

"Whatever," replied Luke, and he turned and faced the other way.

Rena was still weak, and it took her a while to slip out of her old uniform and to slip into Luke's old blue three quarter length denim shorts and black tank top and silver and black boots. He even provided her with shoulder pads which covered not only her shoulders, but the top half of her upper arms as well, as the pads were two-piece ones made of metal. She put on mismatched arm guards and black fingerless gloves. She put on a brown leather belt and leather suspenders similar to SOLDIER ones. Her hair was left untied, just touching the bottom of her shoulder blades. The wings on her back looked more like an accessory now. For the fun of it rather than purpose, she tied a black folded piece of cloth around her head like a ninja, and the ends hung by the left hand side of her face.

"Okay, done," she said. She slumped against a piece of wood that held the tent up. Luke turned around and nodded approvingly.

"Well, I guess we should decide what to do next," said Luke. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I was wondering what you were doing out here," said Rena. "And how you found me. It wasn't simply coincidence, was it?"

"Perhaps it wasn't," replied Luke. "I will tell you all in good time. For now..."

He was doing it again. Acting all mysterious. Rena merely shook her head as a non-verbal way of saying, "Whatever." Under the circumstances, however, they weren't allowed much time to discuss things, especially when it was quite possible that the Turks could be listening. They both knew how sneaky they were.

Suddenly, they both stayed silent, as the sound of a helicopter drew near. Luke looked out of the tent and saw a Shinra helicopter surveying the area. He saw a diagonal square on the tail of the helicopter.

"The Turks," he said. "Shit..."

"They never rest," said Rena.

"Better the Turks than the army," said Luke.

"You really think so?" asked Rena.

"The army tend to shoot first and ask questions later," replied Luke. "They've seen the camp, and are coming closer..."

The Shinra helicopter slowly descended, and it was close enough for Luke to see that Rude was the pilot, but he didn't recognise the girl next to him. Luke helped Rena to her feet, putting her arm around his neck so she could stay upright.

"Magan...," said Rena as the girl jumped out of the helicopter and joined Rude's side. Reno seemed to have popped up out of nowhere.

Rena was still somewhat out of it, so she didn't have to try so hard to pretend.

"Two fugitives in one place," said Reno. "We killed two birds with one stone."

"We've got you on desertion," said Rude. "And her on attempted desertion and attempted murder. You may be allowed to live, but it's not up to us. Come with us, and live, and if you try to run, the other alternative won't be so pleasant."

"What a shame," said Luke. "Rena's foster parents would have wanted to see her first."

Magan looked them over, two individuals with glowing eyes. Luke looked strong. Rena had a fearsome power within her, but was not able to harness it at will. She also looked half-dead.

"Turn yourselves in," said Reno. "Hey you, with the long black hair. Look at your friend. She needs attention..."

"Don't you dare use emotional blackmail on me!" Luke growled. "It's because of your Science Department that she's in this condition. And that old pervert deserved what she did to him! So you go back to your headquarters, and you tell your boss that we will not surrender ourselves!"

"If you don't come with us, the army will come and get you," said Rude.

"Let them come!" said Luke.

"Alright, enough negotiating," said Magan. "We're not asking you to surrender. We'll just take you."

Out of the blue, a giant Shuriken whizzed past Luke and Rena and bounced off Magan's dagger which she had raised up in defence. Luke took this opportunity and kicked Reno out of the way, and dropped Rena next to the helicopter to fight the would-be captors. With his sword drawn, he was ready to fight. Yuffie came out into the open.

"Okay, who wants some?" she yelled. "Who wants to fight a real ninja?"

Magan engaged her in battle for throwing a Shuriken at her, with her dagger in its sheath and her broadsword drawn. Reno was met by Tifa and Cloud arrived on his motorcycle. Soon, the three Turks were surrounded by Barret, Vincent, Tifa, Cloud, Yuffie and Cid. While the fighting was going on, Rena snuck inside the helicopter and started up the propellers. Luke saw what she was doing and began to run to the helicopter.

"Go!" he shouted to the members of AVALANCHE. "We'll meet you later! And thanks!" He jumped in, and Tifa and Yuffie prevented Magan and Reno from trying to get to the helicopter as it took off.

"Ha ha they got your chopper!" laughed Yuffie. Magan growled in frustration. And just as quickly as AVALANCHE came, they were gone. The Turks heard the sounds of a motorbike and a truck driving away. Ignoring Reno and Rude, Magan got out her standard issue cell phone.

"Tseng," she said. "The target got away with our helicopter."

Reno, not attempting not to see the funny side of it was fighting a smirk. He found Magan's expression hilarious.

"Oh, Tseng, don't ask," said Magan. "...Thank you. We'll be standing by."

"What did he have to say?" asked Reno, still trying not to laugh.

"We're gonna be picked up by another Turk chopper," said Magan. "What is so funny?"

Luke and Rena left the helicopter on the edge of Midgar and hitched a ride into the city. They then headed to Seventh Heaven and went underground, where they found everyone else.

"Nice of you to grace us with your presence," said Barret. "I hope you realise that you've caused trouble for all of us."

"We didn't ask for your help," said Rena.

"Well we did," said Tifa. "Because you're family."

"Well, thanks," said Rena modestly. "There's no question that I hadn't thought my plan through. It was nothing more than a personal vendetta that went wrong. And now I have this as a reminder..." She pointed to her wings as she spoke. "But my point is that Luke and I can not possibly be the only ones experimented on in such a manner. There have to be others."

"So you want to investigate Shinra," said Cloud.

"Of course I do," replied Rena. "I want to put a stop to their mindless experiments before the planet is crawling with monsters."

"What about your personal score?" asked Barret. "He's still alive. Are you still determined to take him out?"

"Of course," said Rena. "But now I realise that he might be right when he said I needed him. I have to see if he can reverse the effects."

"Don't count on it," said Vincent. "Those wings are from Bahamut cells. Their work is finished. It's irreversible."

"Well, I still have to do something," said Rena. "Humans aren't meant to be turned into freaks. We're made this way for a reason. Life should not be interfered with. That's the message that I want to convey to Shinra."

"It won't be easy," said Cloud. "But if you work on that one scientist, the message should be clear to the rest of the company."

"Wasn't AVALANCHE formed as an anti-Shinra group?" asked Rena.

"Yeah, but that was to prevent the planet's life-blood from being sucked out," said Barret.

"Well, why not fight for a new cause?" asked Rena. "To save living things from being turned into something which they weren't meant to be. I don't have a whole lot against people being infused with mako, but I do have a lot against people being made into monsters. People can die from that sort of thing. I almost did..."

"What about those who don't want to be saved?" demanded Barret.

"Well, obviously we can't help _them_," said Rena. "What if they experimented on Marlene?"

"They wouldn't dare!" exclaimed Barret.

"You don't know that," said Rena. "We're living in an age where it's not just guns and swords that serve as weapons. It's humans too. Not to stretch it here, but what if that led to the destruction of the planet? And why was Vincent cloned? Isn't that worth investigating?"

Barret sighed deeply and scratched his head.

"That's a valid point," said Luke.

"Well, then," said Barret. "We'll have to get onto 'em."

"And Barret," Rena began. "You're the leader, so it's only appropriate that I ask you this. I want to join AVALANCHE. We seem to have similar values, and my foster parents are part of AVALANCHE, and I want in."

"Then you can join," said Barret.

"Alright!" cheered Yuffie, patting Rena on the back.

"And what about you, mini-Vincent?" Barret asked Luke. "Are you in?"

"Of course I am," said Luke. "I want to be a part of something meaningful, too."

"Then you're one of us, too," said Barret. "We're all gonna kick some Shinra ass!"

Meanwhile, in Tseng's office, Magan, Elena, Reno and Rude met up with Tseng.

"It seems that Rena shares strong family ties with AVALANCHE," said Tseng. "It's a wonder she didn't take Cloud's surname. Or Tifa's, for that matter. But what's important right now is that Rena and Luke are taken into our safe custody."

"With all due respect," began Reno. "They may not feel safe in our custody. If they felt they could trust us, they would be here already."

"We will make them feel safe," said Tseng. "We need to change our methods. Chasing them by helicopter is too intimidating. We must remember that the army and SOLDIER want them dead. We don't. In order to deal with them, we need to know what it is that is driving them. Magan..."

"Sir!" replied Magan.

"What is your relationship to Rena?" asked Tseng.

"We started as friends, the rest is complicated," said Magan. "Now we can't stand each other."

"Whatever broke the relationship, you must repair it," said Tseng. "You don't have to mean it. Just do what you can to gain her trust. Once you've done that, you can bring her in. Let the others deal with Luke."

"Yes, sir," said Magan.

It was night time, and Rena sat on the roof peacefully. She had fashioned herself a weapon befitting a dragoon. It was a cross between a rod and a sword, though the blade was short enough to be a dagger on its own. It was as long as she was tall, and the rod was a deep purple with white bandages wrapped around it for grip, and the blade's edge was iron but the sides were black. She called it Liberty, and it was designed to cut enemies from a distance and for close combat. Her fighting style was a mix of dragoon moves such as 'Jump' and martial arts moves taught to grunts for when they were unarmed. She had also taught herself moves by watching the SOLDIERs at training, and her unarmed combat was taught by Tifa. Happy with her new weapon, she laid it next to her and lit up a cigarette, inhaling casually. She sensed a presence next to her, and reached for her spear when she saw Magan. Ignoring the tensed reaction, Magan settled next to her.

"Where did you come from?" demanded Rena.

"That roof over there," said Magan.

"What do you want?" said Rena, as she took another drag of her cigarette. "Come to capture me again?"

"Just came to talk," said Magan, shaking her head. "I've spent a lot of time putting our past behind me. Things will never go back to the way they were. And even though I'm a Turk, and you're an ex-military, I'm sure we can build some sort of relationship."

"Oh, that's a good one," said Rena bitterly. "Come to suck up to me, have you? All you Turks are the same... In fact, everyone in Shinra is the same."

"You were in Shinra," said Magan.

"Not because I wanted to," said Rena. "But that's none of your business, as you so often loved to say to me."

Magan was getting frustrated already.

"I'm trying to make an effort here," said Magan. "I had to come see how you were. In that desert, you looked sick..."

"I was sick," said Rena. "A long time in a water prison full of mako and crap will do that to you. I couldn't walk for a while, and all I wanted to do was throw up..."

Magan stared ahead for a while. Even though she just wanted to get away, she had to do this for Tseng. She knew Tseng cared about Rena because of Cloud. She tried to sound as honest as possible.

"I can see you're suffering," said Magan. "But it can end. If you let the Turks help you..."

"Help me with what?" Rena demanded. "What are they gonna do? Send me back to Professor Daemon? Hand me over to the army so they can shoot me to death?"

"If you cooperate with the Turks, you should be fine," said Magan. "Tseng wants you alive. I don't know what he has planned, but I can see that he wants to help you. Because he knows Cloud, mainly. They used to work together... until Sephiroth..." she trailed off.

"We're right next to each other," said Rena. "You hate me. You've hated me for years. What's stopping you from taking me now?" Magan turned and looked at Rena as she flicked her cigarette butt over the edge of the roof.

"Something that I'm fighting deep down," said Magan. "I'd hate to see you get hurt, that's all." She stood up and jumped off, disappearing into the shadows. Rena jumped off and headed inside. She approached Tifa at the bar.

"Is Barret still around?" asked Rena.

"I think he's still downstairs," replied Tifa. "Why is that?"

"One of the new Turks approached me," said Rena. "I don't trust her."

**Author's note: **Not a lot of action, I know. But I'm trying to develop the characters a certain way so it's not rushed. If you want to understand a bit more than Rena and Magan, read on in the next upcoming chapters, or just PM me for a frank explanation. Magan is based on a real person, and I'm trying to stay as true to her nature as possible. And I thought because of her appearance she'd make an awesome-looking Turk because of her enigmatic personality.


	7. The New Threat

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 7: The New Threat**

All the members of AVALANCHE were gathered in the basement of Seventh Heaven that same night. The establishment was closed so no-one from the outside would be able to listen in. Barret stood up, facing everyone who was sitting on the chairs facing him. Cait Sith resumed his usual spot on Red XIII's head.

"Tonight we infiltrate the Shinra building from different places," said Barret. "We'll split up into small groups. Cloud and Tifa will come with me. Rena, Yuffie and Luke will team up, so that leaves Cid, Vincent and Red XIII with Cait Sith. Everyone must have their phones on at all times so we can keep each other updated. If we all go tonight, that will leave the Turks lookin' fo' us everywhere else. No doubt they will be back. Magan O'Neil came to suck up to Rena, and that must mean that the remaining Turks will come lookin' fo' Luke. Hopefully they won't think to find us in their own building. And we wanna keep it that way. Any questions?"

Cait Sith jumped up with his paw raised.

"What if they do discover us there?" he asked.

"Then we do what we do best," said Barret. "We fight off those mofo's. And we get in touch immediately so Rena and Luke can hide some place. Hopefully that won't happen. Any other questions?"

"What if some of us get captured?" asked Red XIII.

"Then get in touch," said Barret. "This is a team effort. We gotta find out as much as we can so that we know how to deal with these fools best. Nobody get slack, a'right? Any more questions befo' we get started?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Then let's do this thing!" declared Barret.

The team secretly made their way to the Shinra building and took their positions. Rena's team started from the top and worked their way down. Meanwhile, just as Barret predicted, the Turks were all over Midgar looking for them. The army spread themselves out, searching in Midgar, Nibelheim, Modeoheim, Gongaga, and Cosmo Canyon, and anywhere else an anti-Shinra party might go. Magan stood atop a building overlooking the city of Midgar. Her phone rang and she answered. It was Tseng.

"How are you doing?" asked Tseng.

"I barely scratched the surface," replied Magan. "And now she's disappeared, along with AVALANCHE. My presence must have caused her to alert them."

"Try to find her again," said Tseng. "Even in the last place you'd expect to find her. Maybe the slums."

"I will do my best," said Magan as she flipped her phone shut.

Professor Daemon looked out the vast window over the city. He smiled in a sinister manner.

"I am waiting for you," he said quietly, before laughing out loud madly.

On the very top of the Shinra building, stood a tall man in a long black cloak, his face obscured by his hood. In his right hand he held a long shining katana. He grinned beneath the shadow of his hood. He stood silently, biding his time. Escaping the hold of the Lifestream, he had an old 'friend' he was dying to visit.

"Strange," said Yuffie, "There's not a grunt in sight..."

"Maybe someone was expecting us," said Luke.

"Maybe the army," added Rena. "Perhaps an ambush is coming."

"In that case, we'll have to be extra careful," said Luke. "Maybe we should see if anyone else has seen a grunt or two..." He took out his phone and called Barret. "Barret, we haven't seen one grunt around here. Have you seen any?"

"Nope, not one," replied Barret. "Somethin' ain't right. I heard from Cid that his group haven't seen any, either. Extreme caution is needed if we're all gonna get outta here alive."

"Right," said Luke as he ended the call. "Not one grunt in the building..."

"Wait, over there!" said Yuffie, pointing in front of her. A Shinra grunt was sitting on the floor, slumped against the wall, his head leaning forward. Luke knelt next to him, putting two fingers against his neck, checking for a pulse. Nothing. He then leaned forward to feel and listen for breathing. Still nothing. There were bullet holes in his chest.

"Shit," he muttered. "Let's keep moving."

As they proceeded, they found grunts littering the floors of the building.

"Someone or something's been here," Luke observed.

"Wasn't me," said Rena. "I've been with you guys the whole time."

Suddenly Yuffie shrieked, not expecting to see a corpse to burst out from an overhead ventilation shaft upside down, with its head missing. She quickly calmed down, embarrassed at how easily she had lost composure.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed. She brushed it out of the way as she caught up with her team mates.

Luke got out his phone.

"Barret, we've gone from no grunts to dead grunts," he explained. "One even decided to play peek-a-boo with Yuffie."

"Yeah, we've found bodies, too," said Barret. "We haven't found the cause, though. They all look shot, though. But the bullets are diff 'rent. Kinda like the ones that Vincent uses, but he's been with us the whole time."

"Shit," muttered Luke. "Sounds like I'm not the only clone after all. Barret, you might see more Vincents around the place, but I'm not sure. We'll keep an eye out, anyway."

Barret ended the call.

"I see now why Rena was so concerned," he said.

"We can do this," said Cloud. "We may have to regroup soon to do it, though."

"Let's do more snooping first," suggested Barret. "If things get really bad, we'll regroup as quick as we can."

Cid, Vincent, Red XIII and Cait Sith were doing their rounds when a familiar-looking man with long black hair an red clothes came around the corner.

"Vincent?" questioned Cait Sith.

"No, I'm right next to you," said Vincent. "And it's not Luke, either."

"Shinra can't leave anything alone!" grumbled Cid. "Let's take this mother down!"

Meanwhile, Rena's group were met with three Vincent clones.

"One each!" said Yuffie.

"Careful, these ones must be the ones behind the massacre," warned Luke.

"Anyone can beat a whole bunch of Shinra grunts!" replied Yuffie. "These guys can't be anything special."

"Not unless they're anything like me," muttered Luke. The clones fired on them, and the group managed to dodge every bullet.

"We have to defeat them before they reach their limit break," said Rena. She stabbed one in the chest with her spear, but it didn't bring him down. "Damn, they sure have a lot of stamina!"

"Don't let your guard down!" warned Luke.

Yuffie let herself be chased by a clone, and ran up a wall and landed behind him before striking him down with her dagger.

"Go for their back!" she shouted.

Rena slid between the legs of her clone and from where she lay, she jabbed her bladed rod into the back of her opponent, who immediately collapsed to the ground. Luke whirled around his opponent and made a downward slice on his back.

"Whew," he breathed. "The trick is getting behind them, isn't it? They're so quick, otherwise."

"But what makes them weak on the back?" Rena wondered. She knelt down and lifted up the mantle, and tore the back of the clone's tunic to find out. "No wonder. There's no skin on the back. Just bone and flesh. They're incomplete. How is that possible?"

"Something tells me that they broke free prematurely. The bacteria got in, must have given them a fever which is driving them insane."

"Infection," said Rena. "But who made them?"

"The same man who made me," said Luke. "It has to be. Come on, let's go."

Tseng stared out the window of his office as he made a call to Magan.

"Magan, I need you back here," he said. "An experiment has gone wrong, and the entire infantry in the whole building have been destroyed. And I think AVALANCHE is here too. Rena is in the building somewhere. I've called back Elena, Reno and Rude. While you're containing the internal threat, it may be the perfect opportunity to catch Rena. She will need some help."

"Copy that," said Magan, before Tseng terminated the call.

"We may need the help of AVALANCHE, too," he said to himself.

All the group members who were not with Barrett received a text message. Luke, Rena and Yuffie opened their phones to read it.

"ALL UNITS MEET OUTSIDE THE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT IMMEDIATELY"

"Good thing we were already headed there," said Luke.

Barret's group prepared to make their way accordingly, when the man in the black cloak emerged from around the corner, shining long katana in hand.

"What the fuck?" exclaimed Barret. Cloud drew his large sword as the man stripped off his cloak and dropped it onto the floor.

"Sephiroth," said Cloud.

"The bastard just won't die!" growled Barret. "Can't you take a hint?"

Sephiroth slowly raised his sword and pointed it in the direction of Cloud.

"I told you I'd never be a memory," he said. "I have come to finish you."

"Tifa, Barret, go," said Cloud.

"No!" shouted Tifa. "I won't let you face him alone!"

"He only wants me," said Cloud. "You two get going. There's still a lot of work to do."

"But...," began Tifa.

"C'mon, Tifa," said Barret. "It ain't our fight. There's still the other matter..."

"I know," said Tifa. "Be careful, Cloud..."

Cloud's gaze remained fixed on Sephiroth as his friends left the scene to catch up with the others.

"You're going to be sorry you got in my way," said Cloud.

**Some editing and fixing spelling mistakes, but the story is basically the same.**


	8. Spiralling Conspiracy

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

Now, I'm not sure if Hojo's meant to be dead. If anyone's reading this, please tell me. And I'll still fit him into the plot. Ah, the magic of fan fiction...

**Chapter 8: Spiralling Conspiracy**

Apart from Cloud, everyone else were gathered outside of the Science Department.

"Where's Cloud?" asked Yuffie.

"He's where we left him," replied Barret. "Sephiroth's back, and Cloud's fightin' him."

"What?" exclaimed Yuffie.

"Obviously can't take a hint," commented Vincent.

"Well anyway, Hojo and Daemon must be in the next room," Barret continued. "So we'll go in there, and be prepared for whatever comes our way."

"Alright, let's do this," said Tifa.

Barret opened the door and they entered quickly and efficiently, weapons ready. Hojo and Daemon were there, smiling as if they were expecting them.

"What a pleasant surprise," said Hojo. "I take it you've seen our latest creation."

"Creation?" questioned Cait Sith. "Try monstrosities!"

"What did you do?" Cid demanded.

"Why, we used Vincent's DNA which we've kept for years," said Hojo. "And we made copies. I had created Luke and placed him in an orphanage for Daemon to watch over, and see if his life experiences would make him any different to Vincent. Then we made more, hoping to replicate immortal beings."

"Well you failed," said Barret. "We killed every clone we came across." 

"Then we'll keep trying," said Hojo.

"Stupid man," said Tifa. "They've killed all the army personnel in the building! Who's going to protect you?"

"The ones on the outside looking for you," replied Hojo. "SOLDIER must be trying to contain them... But they'll be overrun too. And so will you."

"You underestimate us," said Rena. "Besides, they've got weak spots on their backs."

"The ones who got out early," said Daemon. "Don't worry, many of them are complete and are roaming the building as we speak. Rufus Shinra should be pleased. We've created a super army. All the branches of Shinra will be obsolete! Then we'll be leading the company!"

"So that's your plan," said Barret.

Suddenly, the whole room was crawling with clones.

"Right on cue," said Hojo. "Have fun!"

Luke and Rena attempted to stop the scientists from escaping, but were blocked by a barrier of clones. The party were outnumbered. They began the long arduous battle to stay alive. They had to if they were going to reach the scientists again.

Magan landed her helicopter on the helipad of the building and jumped out and drew her broadsword, ready for a fight. She ran to the nearest door, hoping to find Rena soon. As soon as she came through the door, she was met by three clones.

"Out of the way!" she yelled as she raised her sword to attack. Dodging their gunshots, she impaled one in the chest with her sword. It didn't work the first time so she did it again, and pulled it out in time to deflect a bullet. She pulled a gun from her holster to shoot back at the same time. With a few gunshots from her, she defeated them and proceeded down the flight of stairs. She went past an area where Cloud and Sephiroth were fighting. She watched for a moment, before continuing on her way.

Cloud deflected Sephiroth's attacks and used Cross Slash against him. Sephiroth recoiled before using Octaslash on Cloud. Cloud fell backwards to the floor, and sprung back up again and charged towards his opponent. Their swords continued to clash, striving against each other.

Meanwhile, in the main lab, the others continued to fight off hordes of the clones. Vincent was doing fine. He knew himself better than anyone else and applied that to defeating his enemies. Tifa used her first limit break to bring down an opponent, and gained enough momentum to use her second limit break against the next one. Meanwhile, Rena was getting closer to her limit break, feeling feverish with each strike against her enemies. Cid and Rena exchanged nods before they used 'Jump' at the same time to finish off their enemies. Yuffie turned and bent her elbow slightly as she released her Shuriken into the air, and as it spun it slit the throats of four clones, killing them slowly, and then one of the Shuriken's points embedded itself in the skull of a fifth clone. Red XIII charged into a clone, smashing it through the window where the clone fell to his death. The beast's momentum was too strong for the clone to recover in midair. Rena gained some distance from her comrades, and spun her bladed rod from side to side, slicing her foes efficiently.

Meanwhile, Cloud was still miles away from defeating Sephiroth. Their fight had taken them to the top of the Shinra building, and Sephiroth showed no signs of tiring. Cloud began to feel fatigued, his body not being what it used to be, despite the mako in his veins. He had to survive this battle. He had so much left to accomplish. Sephiroth knocked Cloud's sword out of his hands, and it flung metres away, embedding itself in metal. Cloud fell backwards to the ground, and Sephiroth stepped closer, his sword pointed at Cloud's face, mere inches away.

"At last, it ends," said Sephiroth. As he prepared himself to strike, a gunshot sounded, and Sephiroth's sword hand was hit, forcing his blade in the other direction. Sephiroth grunted, holding his bleeding hand with his other hand, and turned to see Tseng with his gun aimed towards him. Tseng fired again, and Sephiroth evaded every bullet as Cloud got up and retrieved his sword. Sephiroth back-flipped, reaching his own sword, and deflected more bullets. He lunged at Tseng, attempting to slice him, and Tseng somersaulted over his head, firing behind him and hitting Sephiroth in the back. Sephiroth jerked forward, and Cloud drove his sword into his chest and held it there. Sephiroth choked on his blood, and slowly began to raise his sword, when a bullet pierced his skull from behind and exited through his forehead. Sephiroth slumped forward, dropping his sword. Cloud's head was just below his chin, his face sprayed with the blood of his foe. Sephiroth's form faded as the Lifestream took him once again. Cloud stood up straight, holding his sword by his side.

"And stay there," he said. He turned and faced Tseng. "Like old times, right?"

"Indeed," replied Tseng.

"Why did you help me?" asked Cloud.

"He was cheating," replied Tseng. "Where are the others?"

Cloud was silent. Even though Tseng had helped him, he wasn't sure if the Turk could be trusted. He was part of Shinra, after all.

"I don't know," he said. "Got separated from them when Sephiroth showed up."

"Right," Tseng nodded thoughtfully.

"What do you plan to do with me?" asked Cloud.

"That depends on you," said Tseng. "All the grunts on the inside are dead, but the rest outside might shoot you on sight. If you come with me, I can spare your life."

"I've done just fine without you up till now," said Cloud. "I can handle a few grunts."

"Like Zack?" questioned Tseng. Cloud reached across to him and grabbed Tseng by the front of his suit with one hand, poised to punch him in the face with the other. Tseng didn't flinch, but sighed instead. "Sorry, didn't realise it was such a sensitive subject." Cloud released him roughly.

"You may have helped me," he said. "But I won't be taken in so easily." With his sword on his back, he ran from Tseng, who chased after him hastily. Cloud called out over his shoulder, "You'll have to catch me first!"

Cloud managed to lose him after a few corners in the corridors and headed to the Science Department. When he got there, he found the floor littered with clone corpses, and fatigued comrades.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"We found Hojo and Daemon," said Barret. "But they let their minions out on us and got away. Dammit!"

"So we'll have to chase them," said Cloud. "While the Turks are chasing us..."

"Damn Turks," said Rena.

"We'd better get movin'," said Barret. "Nobody else is gonna stop those bastards."

"I wouldn't want anyone else to be given the pleasure," said Rena. They filed out of the room, ready to leave the building. As they walked along a corridor, Magan found a gap between Rena and the rest of the group and dropped down in front of her from an air vent, landing in front of her. Rena instantly got out her weapon, and the group whirled around to see what the commotion was all about.

"A Turk!" shouted Yuffie.

"I'm not here to fight," said Magan. "I have orders to bring you to Tseng."

"Yeah, Tseng tried to take me as well," said Cloud.

"Great, they're after all of us," said Tifa.

"What does Tseng want with us?" demanded Rena. "And why are you only after me?"

"I don't know what he wants," said Magan in exasperation. "I just know that you'll be safe. You know I couldn't give a rat's ass what happens to you, but orders are orders."

"Yo' can take yo' orders and shove them up your...," Barret began.

"Barret," Rena interrupted. "They can't catch us all if we're separated..."

"Right," said Barret. "AVALANCHE, spread yourselves out and I'll message you a rendezvous point when it's safe! Move out!"

Everyone scattered in random directions, except for Rena, who stayed right where she was, her eyes fixed on Magan's.

"I don't trust no Turk," said Rena coldly. "I still like you a little, you don't like me and that's fine. I'm only sticking around just to KICK YOUR ASS!" She stepped back, pointing her weapon at Magan, who drew her sword and settled herself into her fighting stance.

"If that's how it's gonna be," she said.

Rena's heightened emotions effected her focus, and she began to feel feverish again, but didn't let it show. Her small wings twitched noticeably, and the two women lunged at each other, their weapons making contact. Blocking was easy, since their fighting styles were similar, the only obvious difference were their weapons of choice. In the heat of the battle, Rena's body felt warmer than usual, her emotions at fever pitch. It made her strikes more savage, making her miss more, and sometimes hitting her opponent with extreme force, knocking her around. Magan fought back just as fiercely, managing to wound Rena on the side. As the fight continued, Magan noticed Rena's ears growing slightly longer and pointed at the ends, and black horns grew gradually longer until the ends were level with her shoulder blades. The layers of her hair become more noticeable as the strands stood up slightly, and her hair went from brown to blonde with white highlights. Her eyes glowed yellow, her wings expanded about eight times their original wingspan, and the black scarf around her head soon covered the upper part of her face, with holes formed for her eyes to see through, like a makeshift mask. Her nails became black claws, and her canine teeth got longer and sharper, resembling vampire teeth. Magan looked on her in awe, but her courage did not waver. She was seeing the reality of what had been done to Rena. What puzzled her next was Rena throwing down her weapon, and clutching her head screaming.

"_Go on, kill her,"_ whispered a deep male voice. _"Show her how much you hate her..."_

"SHUT UP!" yelled Rena. "JUST SHUT UP!"

In a blind rage, she punched a hole in the wall.

"_You dare disobey your father?" _questioned the voice.

"I WON'T LISTEN TO YOU!" she yelled again. She considered asking Magan to finish her off. She was clearly going crazy, since she was hearing voices. But when the younger woman edged closer, Rena grabbed her by the front of her suit and threw her against the wall. Magan pulled out her phone, which Rena swiftly kicked out of her hand. Magan got up and punched her in the jaw, only to be grabbed by the throat and thrown through a glass door. Magan picked herself up gingerly and began to fire quickly, getting Rena on the torso, her shoulder, basically all over, but she still wouldn't go down. She began to charge up an attack resembling Mega Flare, when she heard a sweet female voice.

"_You don't really hate her... If you must use Aurora Flare, use it on the true enemy."_

"Who are you?"

"_Your mother... Aerith..."_

Rena's attack waned, as did her energy. She turned back to her normal self. She had heard of Aerith, but she died long before Rena was born. So how did that work? She wondered if she was dying as she collapsed on the floor, blacking out. Magan approached her cautiously, her gun pointed downwards. After checking her life signs, Magan lifted Rena over her shoulder and carried her towards Tseng's office.


	9. Spawn of the Last Ancient

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

Now, I'm not sure if Hojo's meant to be dead. If anyone's reading this, please tell me. And I'll still fit him into the plot. Ah, the magic of fan fiction...

**Chapter 9: Spawn of the Last Ancient**

Rena's mind seemed far away from her body. All around her were floating rocks and a green-white stream flowing at a steady pace. Suddenly, Sephiroth appeared in front of her, levitating, with his arms folded. A black wing had emerged on his right.

"_Daughter,"_ he whispered.

"I'm not your daughter, Sephiroth!" Rena snapped. With a smirk, he faded with the flow of the Lifestream. Rena felt a presence next to her. Hoping it wasn't _him_ again, she looked in said direction and there was a young woman in a pink dress and red jacket, with ivory skin and brown hair with bangs over her face and her hair tied up in a long plait, with caring blue eyes. "...Aerith?"

The woman nodded and smiled slightly. Rena was confused.

"My parents died of Geostigma," she said. "And... what am I doing here? Am I dead?"

Aerith shook her head.

"_You share a connection with the planet," _she replied. _"It's where your sense of justice comes from. You can't stand life to suffer. I sense that you're disgusted with your body. Don't be. You may embrace it as long as it doesn't rule you, okay? If you continue on a path of loathing, you will become like Sephiroth. And before you go... Tell Cloud 'hi' for me, okay?"_

Rena nodded and felt some kind of pull towards the surface of the planet. When she opened her eyes, her vision was a little blurry, but cleared up a few seconds later. She found herself on a chair, slumped forward, in front of a desk. She sat up straight as best she could, and looked up to see Tseng sitting behind the desk. Magan stood beside him, her facial expression stoic.

"Quite a power you possess," Tseng commented. "Your friends have word that you're here. They're on their way. I understand your team's distrust of the Turks. All the times we've tried to catch them... But you must understand. They have rebelled against Shinra for decades."

"That's because Shinra is an environmental hazard," said Rena. "And it's thanks to Shinra that Cloud's best friend is dead. All the same, thank you for understanding our distrust."

A moment later, the rest of AVALANCHE entered the room, escorted by Elena, Reno and Rude, and a handful of grunts. Luke approached Rena from behind her chair, resting his hands on her shoulders and leaning down to look at her from the side.

"You alright, Rena?" he asked, his voice full of concern.

"I'm fine," replied Rena, smiling slightly. He had no idea how glad she was to see him. Luke stood up straight again, his hands still on her shoulders, and looked straight ahead at Tseng, while shooting a glare at Magan. The rest of the group came closer as well.

"I have sought the approval of Rufus Shinra to ask you to join forces with us," said Tseng. "Cloud, I know what you're going to say. 'Not interested', right? The welfare of the planet depends on this. We have Vincent clones in the building, and the two scientists responsible are now in hiding. If we don't get to them, we'll have a major crisis on our hands."

Cloud opened his mouth to speak, when Rena piped up.

"If we can trust you, then I want to know the truth," she said. "This will sound weird, but when I changed form, I could hear two voices, one male, one female. Then I saw a vision while I was passed out. I saw Sephiroth. He claimed to be my father, and then there was Aerith, saying she was my mother. My parents died of Geostigma, and Aerith died long before I was born. So what's going on here?"

Her comrades began to murmur amongst themselves, except for Cloud and Tifa, who were quite puzzled.

"You have every right to know how you came to be," said Tseng with a nod. "As a Turk, I can access confidential information from the Science Department. Let me find the information for you... I had heard about something like that over twenty years ago..."

He opened his black laptop and began typing quickly, cracking codes and typing in Rena's details. Rena watched him intently, and watched as he frowned slightly.

"Well, I never would have expected that," he murmured. He turned around the lap top and said, "Read that."

Rena began reading the pages on the screen, and each revelation shocked her, though she didn't show it. She saw an image of Aerith, as seen in her vision, and an image of Sephiroth. The information hadn't been updated for fifteen years.

_The ovum was extracted from subject Aerith Gainsborough while she was unconscious after she was separated from terrorist organisation AVALANCHE. The sperm was extracted from a semen sample taken while we examined Sephiroth after his last assignment seven years ago. As Aerith was taken away once again by AVALANCHE, and since we have been unable to find a surrogate, the new embryo is being incubated artificially. …..._

_The infant shows high levels of power derived from the Jenova cells in Sephiroth, yet a dormant power lies below the surface from the last Ancient..._

_The infant has been placed in the care of Melissa and Rodney Cowell, and has been named Rena. The couple have been unable to conceive naturally, and have been granted care under the condition that they live under surveillance of Shinra. …..._

_Rena, aged 5 years, has been left in the care of the orphanage on the edge of Cosmo Canyon after her adopted parents died of Geostigma. Professor Daemon is working as a tutor there, and is continuing research on her..._

Rena slowly rose from her chair and turned away from Tseng and Magan.

"So it's true," she said. "My life has been controlled by Shinra since before I was born... My true parents are hardly even human... What was Shinra trying to do by taking an egg from an Ancient? What, Sephiroth killed the last Ancient so they needed me to show them the way to the Promised Land? I don't even know how to get there."

"Shit," said Cid.

"Damn," said Barret.

"Well," began Cloud. "Huh, I knew you reminded me of someone..."

"Who?" asked Rena. "Sephiroth or Aerith?"

"Aerith," replied Cloud.

"Man, this adventure keeps getting weirder," said Luke.

"I guess that's why my mind was at the planet's core," said Rena. "I am part-Ancient..."

"Which means that if you end up in the wrong hands, your power could mean the end for all existence," said Tseng. "I have shown you the truth. I've hid nothing from you. Whether you're interested or not, we need your help."

Everyone looked at Barret, who looked at Cloud.

"You're the one with the history," said Barret.

"Well, the bad guys aren't going to stop themselves," said Cloud. "We'll join forces then. But on one condition. After this, your people have to leave us alone."

"That can be arranged," said Tseng. "We'll search the planet all over for the scientists. And work together to bring their clones down. But we'll have to find them quickly, before they make more powerful ones. Not only that, but we need to escort Rufus Shinra to a safe place."

"Let him suffer!" Rena spat. "And you!" She pointed an accusing finger at Magan. "YOU handed me in to him!"

"I was doing my job," responded Magan. "You ran from yours."

"Grrr you're impossible!" Rena growled. "You handed me in when I had a good reason to run away, and I got turned into THIS!"

"You may have no regard for Rufus," said Tseng. "But he's my real boss. And a Turk's duty is clear. We'll need you all to cut a path for us while we escort him."

"Well, where are we goin'?" asked Barret.

"Modeoheim," said Tseng.

The journey was arduous. It took hours for AVALANCHE to clear a path through enemy clones while the Turks and a small contingent of infantry grunts escorted Rufus Shinra to Modeoheim by car. If any aircraft were used, there was a risk that it would be shot down. However, they finally made it, and the chairman was kept safe in the basement of a vacant house. The cold weather had a bite to it, and everyone decided to wear pants and coats to keep warm. Modeoheim was cold, but never this cold. Rena entered Rufus' hiding place.

"Ah, Rena Cowell," said Rufus. His age was showing. His hair, once a vibrant blonde, was almost overtaken with grey. His face, once strong, began to sag.

"Rena Cowell, or Rena Gainsborough?" Rena demanded. "Or what about Sephiroth? Does he have a last name? Should I take that name?"

"I see you're not in the best mood," said Rufus with a cheeky smile.

"Well, let's talk about that, shall we?" said Rena, with venom in her words. "I came to you months ago to report to you that I was being sexually harassed by my fellow comrades. You did nothing, and all I could do was run. Then you sent the Turks after me, and then allowed your mad scientists to turn me into a monster. I escaped, almost killing the people around me, and you tried to have me captured again. Now, we have to help you hide from the armies of the man who did this to me. I warned you, Rufus, didn't I? You people clearly haven't learnt from the mistake of creating Sephiroth, and your foolish sapping of the planet's energy. You make one mistake after another. You know what the problem is with you and your company? You don't believe in human rights. People have a right to protection from sexual predators. People have a right to keep their humanity, NOT to be used as experiments against their will."

"Research is research," said Rufus.

"NOT WHEN IT ENDANGERS PEOPLES' LIVES!" yelled Rena. "No, what Daemon did to me was NOT RESEARCH! When this is over, I will be nagging you until you stop these inhumane experiments. I want them banned. Sure, human experimentation is fine if you're looking for a cure to a disease. But to make monsters to strengthen your army? If you keep doing that, there'll be no-one to protect, not even yourself. And if you must do such a thing, there is a little thing called CONSENT! Ever heard of that? Clearly not."

"You won't get what you want," said Rufus.

"Is any of this getting through that thick skull of yours?" Rena exclaimed. "You bastard. Mark my words. After this, I won't be backing down. Don't forget that I have the power to rip your throat out." After that, she left the basement. Tseng watched the whole time and sighed. Rufus was his superior, and he wasn't going to say anything.

**Small editing here and there. I could split chapters, but my creativity doesn't stretch that far. Sorry. Have you guessed the relationship between Magan and Rena yet? :P**


	10. Aurora Flare

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

After about a week of writer's block, I think I can keep going. I don't care if no-one reviews. As my mum says, no news is good news.

**FFVII reference to Cloud hearing the voice of Sephiroth. And if you're confused about the timeline, this fic is set after Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. That's the one where Cloud is afflicted with Geostigma. Geostigma resulted from what happened at the end of FFVII. So Rena was only little during Advent Children. Make sense now? Just a little?**

**Chapter 10: Aurora Flare**

Cloud jumped onto a rooftop and kicked a heap of snow off it so he could sit down. He pondered the recent events, trying to make sense of them. He thought of his encounter with Sephiroth. He was dead already. Would he return? And how was he doing that? Was his will to live that strong? He observed Rena, his foster daughter, standing guard at the entrance to Modeoheim, with Yuffie. When he found that Rena had Sephiroth's eyes, and how tall she was for a female, he frowned. She even had his nose. The rest of her, the bottom half of her face, and her fringe, her hair, all Aerith.

'They must have extracted an egg from Aerith while she was locked up with Red,' thought Cloud. 'Makes sense... Why didn't I see it before?' He heard Rena chuckle at one of Yuffie's jokes, and told her one, making Yuffie double over in laughter. Luke joined Cloud on the roof.

"Hey there," said Luke. "Brooding all by yourself..."

"I was thinking," said Cloud. "It occurred to me that Sephiroth keeps coming back, not just for Jenova, but for..."

"Rena," Luke finished. "I thought the same thing. She hears him, you know. She can't stand it. She's fine when it's Aerith. I can see how relaxed she looks, almost... sorrowful... But Sephiroth, I swear, is trying to turn her insane..."

"Sephiroth has that effect on people," Cloud remarked. "I used to hear Sephiroth seven years after I first joined Shinra. I was also experimented on, along with Zack, my best friend... In a biological sense, Sephiroth is my brother. I was also made from Jenova cells. But what sets me apart... I'm still not sure. Oh, shit. I'm rambling."

Luke didn't know how to respond to what Cloud said, and saw how uncomfortable he was. So he decided to change the subject.

"Well, I can see you hate this subject, so," Luke began. "I was thinking... We're two men, and... uh... Well, men talk about women, right?"

"Right," said Cloud. "But you might be barking up the wrong tree. I don't do romance."

"Right," said Luke. "That's why I see you staring at Tifa all the time!"

"Yeah, but that's all," said Cloud. "Ever since Aerith... I don't want to lose another person."

"So, you're worried that Tifa might die if you let yourself get attached?" asked Luke.

"Something like that," said Cloud.

"Well, you know she loves you, right?" asked Luke.

"I know," said Cloud. "Actually, we're not getting any younger... I have considered a courtship... Maybe even take her off the shelf, so to speak..."

"Maybe," winked Luke. "She's been waiting long enough! What is she, 36?"

Cloud chuckled. "She doesn't like to think about it."

"She still looks quite young though," said Luke. "All that fighting must be keeping her fit..."

"Hold on," said Cloud. "You wanted to talk romance. So this isn't about me. What made you bring it up?"

"Well..." began Luke, scratching the back of his head nervously.

Barret and Tifa approached Rena and Yuffie.

"It's our turn for guard duty," said Barret. "You two are free to do whatever you want. Jus' stay out of trouble."

"Yes sir," nodded Rena. The two young woman left their post to Barret and Tifa and headed towards the hideout. Just as they began walking, a red dragon swooped over the village. Everyone looked up, watching the beast fly through the air, its roar reverberating throughout the region.

"What the?" exclaimed Yuffie. "Where did that come from?"

"I'm going after it," said Rena. She transformed in a matter of seconds and took to the air, Liberty, her bladed rod ready. She was a dragoon, it was her job. She pursued the beast hastily.

"Let's give her a hand!" ordered Barret. He aimed his gun arm at the dragon and fired rapidly. Rena flew above the dragon, which turned its body around to face her and fired a large fire ball at her. It hit her, sending her flying far from the dragon. Rena recovered quickly while the dragon got hit by Barret's barrage of bullets, and she found Vincent in the air as well, in his second form, using his revolver Cerberus against the dragon. Yuffie threw her large Shuriken, hitting it in the side. Rena grabbed onto the dragon's tail and slingshot herself to her previous position and tore a gash into its left wing with her blade. The dragon lost control and crashed into the ground. It was still able to move, ready to fight the party before him. Cid came out of nowhere, his spear jabbed into its chest. The dragon roared again, breathing fire at everyone. Everyone jumped out of the path of the fire. Rena landed on its back and drove the blade of her rod through its skull, piercing its brain, and finishing it off. Once the creature stopped moving, she jumped down, and turned back into her natural form. The beast glowed and shrunk, leaving a dead Vincent clone in its place.

"Daemon's making dragons now?" questioned Yuffie.

"We're running out of time," said Cloud. The Turks joined them.

"If only we knew where they were coming from," said Tseng.

"Do you think they know where we are?" asked Tifa.

"No," said Tseng. "The clones must be doing a sweep of the entire planet."

"Shit," said Luke. "I hope they haven't killed anyone..."

"I doubt they would have," said Tseng. "We're the only ones who are wanted..."

"More nasties," remarked Reno. "Clones, armies of clones, now dragons. What will they think of next?"

"Maybe we should split up and meet them at every corner?" suggested Barret.

"That wouldn't be wise," said Tseng. "Safety in numbers."

"Not all of us were needed to beat that dragon," Cloud pointed out. "And it's not like a few of us can't handle a few foes. We're good at what we do."

"I just wish we knew what they're attracted to," said Luke. "If we could draw them out into one place, we could kill them all off in one hit."

"We might be outnumbered this way," said Tseng.

"Yeah, but some of us aren't human," said Rena. "My limit break is rather powerful."

"It's untested," said Rude.

"Then test me," urged Rena. "Let me loose on a few dragons."

Tseng thought for a moment.

"Some of us will have to stay here," he said. "The remaining infantry, and some of my people... The rest of us will just have to be there to... supervise. We'll need to go where no-one will get hurt."

"Let's take the airship," said Cid.

So everyone left Modeoheim to board the airship which was moored just outside of Midgar and went dragon hunting.

"We'll make some of them chase us," he said.

They went over Cosmo Canyon and found a dragon. It gave chase and then Cid steered the airship over Nibelheim, where they found another dragon. The last place was Gongaga, where another dragon appeared. The three dragons chased them to a wasteland beyond the canyon. Rena, in her second form, flew from the airship and picked a fight with the dragons, equipped with Firaga, Thundaga and Blizzaga materia. After casting a few spells, she flew up close to one of them, striking it in the face with her rod. After being hit with a tail and almost hitting the airship, she steadied herself. Her senses went crazy, and she felt feverish once more. She gained higher altitude and flexed her wings in a fixed hovering position, and stretched out her rod in front of her. She channelled her limit break energy from the tips of her wings, through her body and into the rod until a lavender-coloured ball of light formed. She raised the bladed rod above her head, and then pointed it down, striking the ball of energy, which, as it got closer to its target, grew larger, almost the size of a large continent, engulfing the dragons in lavender flames and scorching the ground. The shock wave was so intense that Cid had to fly the airship far away from it. The cold flames died down and vaporised into nothing. Her wings being the only things holding her up, Rena hung limply in the air. Having released Aurora Flare for the first time, her strength was sapped from her. Her head hung low as the airship approached her. She landed softly, and fell to the deck as she changed back. Everyone gasped as she fell. She got up on all fours, still not lifting her head. Luke rushed from the bridge and rushed up to the deck towards her.

"Rena!" he called out. Her eyes glowed brightly from the mako, more brighter than usual.

"_I'm coming back for you," _Sephiroth whispered from the Lifestream. _"We'll all be reunited soon. I'll come and we'll bring her back..."_

Rena groaned as Luke helped her to her feet and slung her arm around his neck.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice filled with concern. Rena didn't reply. He helped her back inside the airship.

"_As long as you exist, so will I," _promised Sephiroth.

Tifa came and fussed over her.

"There's a bed down the corridor," said Cid.

So Luke and Tifa took her to the bed and lay her down.

"She'll be fine," Tifa said to Luke. "She's just exhausted..." She was unable to hide her own concern. "I'll stay here. You go back to the others." Luke nodded silently and did as he was told. Tifa knew that Rena had a thing about males in the room while she was asleep. It was something that was there since she was a small child. Rena fell into a dreamless sleep. Dreamless because all she heard was voices, and only saw memories. Some were hers, some were not. Unseen by Tifa, Sephiroth's phantom stood by the bed, sword in hand.

"_They're all here," _he said. _"They took away your true family. They took away Mother... My mother... If it weren't for them, your mother would still be alive... They put her life in danger... They keep killing me, trying to keep us separated. But don't you worry anymore. I will return, and you will come with me. We'll rule the planet together..."_

Little by little, Sephiroth's influence infiltrated her mind. He was going to awaken the darkness within her, the same darkness that resided within himself. He was going to use her to bring himself back and exact revenge on his enemies. He promised Aerith's return, but intended to allow no such thing.

"Turn back to Modeoheim," Tseng ordered. "We can't linger out here much longer."

Cid grunted and obeyed. He wondered why he was taking orders from a Turk. But then, maybe Rena could be better looked after on the ground. What the team didn't realise was that by unleashing her power, Rena was opening herself up to being changed by their old nemesis. Her unstable mind would affect her body in ways that could not be imagined.

Once they reached Modeoheim, Rena had awakened, but she was not the same.

"Are you alright?" asked Tifa.

"Yes, I'm fine," replied Rena.

"Good," said Tifa, smiling with relief. "We're back in Modeoheim. Come on. Can you walk?"

Rena nodded and stood up and followed Tifa out. A thought flashed through her mind as she stepped off the airship. Magan stared at her, noticing that something was off. She wasn't the only one who noticed.

"I know where the scientists are," said Rena. "While I was out, I was in touch with the planet through the Lifestream."

"So where are they?" asked Tseng.

"The middle of the canyon," said Rena. "I can lead you to their location. Once we take them out, they won't be making any more monsters. And then we can take care of what's left."

"Sounds simple enough," said Yuffie. "So what's the plan?"

"When I come back from consulting Rufus, I'll let you know," replied Tseng.

"That's alright, I'm right here," said Rufus, emerging from the vacant house. "So, if you can track people down, that means you could show us the way to the Promised Land."

"Is that all you want me for?" asked Rena, glaring. "Even if I knew how to get there, I wouldn't take _you_."

"So you can't?" asked Rufus.

"These powers are new to me," said Rena. "I still don't know exactly what I can do. All I know is, I have the power to engulf an entire battle field in cold flame."

"Is that so?" questioned Rufus.

"We've already tested that theory," said Tseng. "She speaks the truth. But she could barely stand afterwards. I wouldn't suggest that it be done again too soon."

"Hmmm," hummed Rufus. "We'll have to stop Hojo and Daemon by all means necessary. When the time comes, her body will be used to it. But time is ticking. If we don't hurry, the planet will be overrun with monsters that cannot be contained."

"Tomorrow," said Cloud. "When everyone's fully up to the job." His words were spoken so sternly that they were taken as final. Meanwhile, Rena's mind and soul were slowly being eaten away by Sephiroth's phantom. Her own thought processes were weakening.


	11. Washed in Insanity

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 11: Washed in Insanity**

The next day, everyone except Rena boarded the airship and took off in the direction of Cosmo Canyon, and Rena transformed into her second form to lead them. Her powers showed her which way to go. She was able to channel power from the planet itself to find what she needed. This power changed her vision from normal to heat vision. When she found the spot, she turned to the airship and pointed downward before making her descent. Cid followed suit, landing a safe distance from the laboratory. AVALANCHE prepared themselves for battle, and the Turks were so naturally confident that they didn't bother preparing at all. Rufus stayed on the ship, not wanting to get his white suit dirty. A handful of infantry men came with them. Breno was one of them. Rena had seen him, but chose to ignore him. He had no right to call her a slag and expect her to forgive him right away. And now that she had changed, there was no way that she would soften towards him.

Before anyone could get into the laboratory, they were met with a wall of circling dragons and a red sheet of normal Vincent clones. Rena's vision was back to normal, and she held her weapon in a battle stance, her blade pointed forward. Breno watched her silently, while his gun was held in a firing position towards the incoming army of red. The members of AVALANCHE charged forwards, each clashing with a clone and making their way through the red sheet.

The Shinra infantrymen followed after them, using AVALANCHE as a barrier to protect themselves, as Rufus instructed before. The Turks flanked them as they fought off more clones. It was a struggle to even make a dent. With each strike of her weapon, Rena felt that damn fever gradually taking over again. Her mind was being pounded by Sephiroth's whispers, and she tried in vain to stop them.

"The scientists are goin' to get away at this rate!" complained Barret.

"Then we should use the Materia that we brought along!" shouted Yuffie over the war cries of the enemies. "It must be that time, surely!" 'Then we can delay Rena's limit break a little longer,' she thought to herself.

"Stand back!" shouted Cloud. Everyone retreated to a safe distance as the battlefield became a large lava pit. Emerging from the flames was the well-known summon Ifrit. With a roar, he pounded the ground with his fist, creating a temporary quake, and engulfing thousands of clones in Hellfire. After many had fallen, the flames vanished as did Ifrit.

"Next summon!" Barret ordered.

"Outta my way!" yelled Yuffie as she charged forward, Materia glowing from her wrist. "Let's go... ODIN!"

The clouds grew dark and grey as the sound of Sleipnir the six-legged horse galloped from the distance. The rider, the great Odin sat proudly on his steed, and drew his sword from his torso. Holding the sword at arms length, he charged forward and sliced many clones with his super-sharp blade. Severed bodies were all over the place, and the powerful summon had vanished.

"They just keep coming!" grunted Luke. He didn't mind the battle, but he couldn't stand a living mirror image right in his face. He shoved off the abomination and finished it off by slicing off its head.

After completing one of her limit breaks on a few of the clones, Tifa called her assigned summon. A great blue serpent, Leviathan appeared. With a roar, he drowned half the battlefield in a great Tsunami before disappearing.

"I'd say that's a big dent now," said Cid.

'I wish I could call Bahamut,' thought Rena with bitterness. 'I could if Daemon hadn't stolen that Materia from me...'

"Stand back!" she shouted to her allies. "Here comes the big one!"

"NO!" roared Barret. "You can't handle your own limit break! Stand down!"

"Too bad," muttered Rena. Her dark side wasn't far now.

She took to the air until she got to the right altitude. That darn fever was burning now. It had nothing to do with the limit break, she was certain. Perhaps her body was rejecting the Bahamut cells? No, if that was going to happen, it should have happened at the beginning. Holding her bladed rod in front of her, she channelled her power from her wings to the rod, creating a ball of energy. Once it was at its full size, she struck in down with her weapon, and it became a beam, creating a great ball of destruction on the ground. The entire enemy army was destroyed, including the circling dragons. The building of the laboratory was scorched, but not about to collapse. The flames of Rena's limit break burnt out, and she landed slowly. Back to her human form, with the small black wings, she managed to keep herself standing. Yet that fever still burned.

"Rena...," began Tifa, as she approached the younger woman. "You look pale." She felt her forehead. "You're burning up!"

"That means there's still a dormant power within her," said Red XIII. "It's not an Ancient's power... It's not the foreign cells, either. It's..."

"Sephiroth," Cloud finished.

Breno listened from a distance. He'd heard of Sephiroth, the man who was once considered a hero, and who proved to be too good for himself, let alone anyone else.

"Ah, the joys of being conceived in a test tube," Rena mused.

"What?" blurted Breno. Everyone turned to face him, and he blushed deeply.

"You didn't know," said Rena. "I was adopted. Twice. Hell, it's even news for me. Wait, why am I talking to you? You think I'm a slag."

"I didn't mean it," said Breno.

"Of course not," retorted Rena. "You say lots of things you don't mean. Tseng, isn't there a protocol for infantrymen to only speak when spoken to? I should know. I used to be in the army."

"You're right," said Tseng, as Breno glared. "On the other hand, there's too much at stake to worry so much about protocol."

"Are you feeling alright?" asked Luke. "Spending too much time with your rivals is making you soft!"

"Not at all," said Tseng. "We can now enter the facility, but if there's any surveillance cameras and Rena is seen, our target could get away. I can contact them, and see if they are willing to negotiate."

"What, you couldn't contact them before?" asked Tifa.

"It wasn't the right time," replied Tseng as he took out his cell phone and used speed dial to get in touch with Hojo.

Hojo chuckled as his cell rang. Seeing the caller ID, he grinned as he answered.

"Been a long time, Tseng," said the scientist.

"Is Daemon with you?" asked Tseng.

"Of course," replied Hojo.

"We must negotiate," said Tseng. "Come to an agreement. What do you want with Shinra?"

"The whole company," Hojo replied simply. "Is Rufus with you, or is he hiding?"

"It's not your concern."

"Well then... If you want to negotiate, come alone."

"Absolutely not," said Tseng calmly. "My people are coming with me."

"Fine... Your fellow Turks, and the grunts. But nobody from AVALANCHE. I can trust you, Tseng. But them... Not while they're harbouring that freak of nature."

"Hojo, your apprentice did that to her and more. If anyone's the freak of nature, _he _is." With that, the Turk hung up. He turned to the rest of the group.

"We can get to where the scientists are," he said. "But he won't have AVALANCHE because they're non-Shinra."

"We're not standin' around!" exclaimed Barret. "Who does that guy think he is?"

"Oh, you're coming with us," explained Tseng. "But you'll have to blend in."

After some coaxing, Barret agreed to dress like a Shinra grunt like the rest of AVALANCHE. Rena felt an odd familiarity with the uniform, since she used to wear it a lot when she was in the army. To keep her wings from standing up and trying to get out of the material, and to make her look male from the front, Tifa took her behind a corner to bind her chest and wings flat. If the enemy thought she was male, she would go by unsuspected. Now fully dressed with the helmet and everything, she was ready. Everyone filed up inside the facility, except for Red XIII, who could not pass himself off as a grunt. The real Shinra grunts stood by every stair case by twos, covering any ground so as to prevent Hojo and Daemon from escaping. Rena and Yuffie walked side by side.

"Hey, you might get your Bahamut Materia back," said Yuffie.

"Yeah, that would be something," replied Rena. "Say... I bet Daemon and Hojo used it to make dragons out of those clones..."

"Always a possibility," said Cloud from the front. Wearing the uniform brought back memories for him also. When he was an infantryman, he'd met his best friend Zack, who was in SOLDIER. Images flashed in his mind for a moment as memories played on his mind. He could always move on, but he could not forget. And he knew that he also had some business with Hojo, the man who practically soaked him in mako. Hojo had been gone for a long time, but he must have realised that he wouldn't be around forever. Hence, Daemon was chosen to carry on his work. Cloud was disturbed by that thought. For his foster daughter's sake, these experiments could no longer continue. And that man could not keep walking free while the orphan continued to suffer.

They reached the floor where the scientists stood, waiting for them.

"I assume you brought the grunts here as witnesses," said Hojo, as Tseng approached, flanked by Reno and Rude.

"No, this is your escort," said Reno with a smirk. "To protect you from AVALANCHE. Big bad AVALANCHE..."

"Before you act," began Hojo. "I ask you as fellow Shinra people. Don't you see the potential which these experiments hold? My pupil Daemon and I are discovering the wonders of Summon Materia. If you unleash a summon long enough, you can extract their DNA and use it on other organisms. That's what we did with some of the Vincent clones, to see how powerful they are."

"They may be powerful," said Tseng. "But they couldn't stand up to Rena. She was too strong for them."

"Rena was a failure," said Daemon.

Upon hearing this, Rena's blood immediately boiled, and her willpower was only just holding on.

"I should never have used her own Materia to make her into a weapon," explained Daemon. "I realise now that just having her in her old form was enough. Half Ancient, half Jenova spawn... I mean, we had the means to make an embryo long before the passing of those two. But our curiosity got the better of us. When she was growing up, she did not show one symptom of possessing any powers of her ancestry. I thought that perhaps she was a dud. Until I gave her the B cells. I thought that creating her the way she is now would be the pinnacle of achievement in genetic engineering."

"How did you expect her to react?" asked Reno. "You... you know... to her." He was uncomfortable with words to describe what Daemon had done.

The professor sighed deeply, and turned around to look through a window, facing the dry landscape surrounding the facility.

"I was supposed to be watching over her," he explained. "My grandfather... he... But I guess a part of him had passed onto me. It doesn't excuse what I did. But before I went back to the Science Department to continue my training, I booked into the Shinra Rehabilitation Centre to confront my perverted ways. Obviously, I couldn't get over it overnight, but my therapist helped me to confront the reasons behind my actions. I know I deserve to be locked up forever..."

"Why did you make an army of clones?" demanded Magan.

"To draw Rena back here," replied Daemon. "Rufus hadn't told you?"

"You mean he was in on it?" exclaimed Reno.

"Yes," said Hojo.

Rena was shocked to the core, as well as everyone else in the group.

"A lot of infantry personnel died from the clones' attacks," said Magan. "And why use clones?"

"Because clones are sub-human," replied Hojo.

Luke felt insulted. If it wasn't for his disguise, he would have lunged at the old man. Vincent held in a chuckle.

'Sub-human,' he thought. 'Poor Luke...'

"And by fusing Vincent's DNA with that of Bahamut, we were attempting to create an organism more powerful than Rena," Hojo continued. "But they were all lacking in the hidden power held by Rena. The power to be in tune with the planet, and the strength to take on armies."

Once again, Sephiroth was calling out to Rena from the Lifestream. She had a vision of Sephiroth standing in front of her, eyes like coals, his hair swaying in the non-existent breeze. He walked towards her until he went through her, and awakened another power in her. His phantom presence had stirred up the Jenova cells that lay dormant in her blood.

"I had thought that I could fix her," said Daemon. "But the cells are there to stay. There's no way that she can be changed back... However, her continued existence and her surges of power could mean the end of this planet..."

"No...," Rena said softly. "My continued existence means the end of yours!" She removed her helmet as her black horns came out and the usual transformation, but instead of black dragon wings, black angel wings tore out of the back of her uniform, just like the wing of Sephiroth. Her hair turned silver but remained at its usual length. The rest of AVALANCHE showed themselves, casting off their helmets and held their weapons in Rena's direction. Rena was not herself. Her real self saw nothing but black.

"So... you betray me as well," she said.

"Rena, don't do anything stupid!" Luke called out.

The creature chuckled evilly as she looked carefully at everyone. Her eyes fell on Cloud, who held his sword in a battle stance.

"Kill my father and then kill me?" Rena questioned. "And what about my mother? Father says you did it. Stabbed her from behind. How will you kill me?"

"Rena," said Cloud. "This is not like you. Sephiroth is lying to you. Yes, I defeated him. He was going to destroy everything! Sephiroth killed Aerith!"

"Don't lie to me," growled Rena with a glare. She took out her weapon, which had changed shape as a reflection of her heart. It was a long sword now, with the handle resembling the long handle, and the blade was long like Sephiroths, but curved up slightly at the tip.

"We were all there!" shouted Cid. "You weren't! Who ya gonna believe? Us, your friends, or some crazed phantom?"

"I'll not have you refer to my father that way!" yelled Rena. A dark sphere surrounded her and she disappeared, and reappeared behind Daemon.

"This is the end!" she declared. She drove her blade into his back before he had time to react, and the blade went out to the front before she pulled it out again, and the old man collapsed lifelessly to the floor. Rena went to kill Hojo next, but as she went to strike him, her blade was locked with Cloud's.

"You're in the way," glared Rena.

"Because I care," replied Cloud calmly. "Nobody else has to die."

Rena stepped back, her searing look the same as Sephiroth's.

"Father says that if I kill all our enemies, he will come back and we'll bring back my mother together," said Rena. "So I must kill you all! My family will be reunited! And if you won't die by the sword..." She trailed off. She spread her wings and took to the air, blasting a hole in the ceiling. She hovered above the facility.

"Prepare for Supernova!" she called out.

"We have to get out NOW!" shouted Cloud urgently. "Yuffie, grab the Materia!" Yuffie hopped across the floor and snagged the Bahamut Materia from a pedestal on a counter. Reno and Rude grabbed Hojo and everyone scuttled down the stairs as the huge ball of energy came falling from the sky. Everyone evacuated the facility and jumped aboard the airship. The ball of energy got even closer as Cid started up the airship. Just as it took off, the attack made contact with the facility, causing it to explode. The shock waves were right on the tail of the airship. Fortunately, the airship was hidden from view by the immense dust cloud. Seeing a burnt out crater where the facility once stood, Rena grinned in satisfaction and flew off into the distance, sure to appear again.


	12. Cancer Sticks and Contemplation

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**Chapter 12: Cancer Sticks and Contemplation**

Rena had tossed away the binding. It was useless now that her new set of wings had torn through. Sephiroth was silent. What she didn't realise was that she now shared her body with him. Yet she felt his presence, and knew he was close. This gave her a sick and twisted satisfaction. She took to the air once more, and flew to the lower half of Midgar, beneath the plate. The Sector 5 Church seemed to be pulling her there. In her current state of mind, she knew not the origin of her curiosity.

She landed on the roof top and lightly hopped through the hole, avoiding the flowers on the way down. She turned around and admired the small flower garden. This was the work of her mother, alright. And all of a sudden, she felt a cleansing sensation wash over her, and the silver hair, the black feathered wings, the horns and claws were gone.

Cloud, who was sitting on a pew towards the door of the church, watched in silence, not wanting to alert her to his presence. Rena gasped softly. The real Rena.

"What?" she asked herself. "What am I doing here?" She heard footsteps approaching. She slowly turned around to face Cloud. "Cloud? What's going on? How did I...?"

"You flew here," replied Cloud. "Not with dragon wings, but black feathered wings. Exactly the same as Sephiroth's one wing. Whatever is within you, Sephiroth must have awakened it... You killed Daemon. For real. And destroyed the facility."

"How?" gasped Rena.

"When you changed, you somehow learnt Sephiroth's limit break," explained Cloud. "You released Supernova on the facility. We all got out just in time. Your weapon changed, too. From zanbatou to long sword. Like Sephiroth's katana, except curved at that tip..."

Rena inspected her weapon. It was back to normal, and didn't look like it changed at all.

"I wonder what made me want to come back here?" she pondered.

"Probably to be near something that reminds us all of Aerith," replied Cloud thoughtfully. "So, you don't remember anything?"

"Nothing at all," Rena confirmed. "It's like I've been asleep the whole time... The last thing I remember was seeing Sephiroth standing in front of me, then walking towards me. When his phantom went through me, that's when I lost all control, and I blacked out. And yet, when I'm here, the urge to kill, to destroy... feels so far away. It's like Aerith is right here."

"Maybe she is," said Cloud. "This may sound kinda corny, but... When I look at those flowers, it's like she's still alive in them. They never wilt... Anyway, I guess this church is a safe zone then. As long as you're here, you have full control of yourself."

"Yes, but I can't stay here for the rest of my life," said Rena. "There has got to be a way to rid myself of this pest."

"I guess I could offer one piece of advice," said Cloud. "When you're out in the open, on the battlefield, don't forget who you are. Because Sephiroth would love you to forget."

"I know," said Rena. "I should have realised. I don't know why I let him in. Except maybe I wanted to connect with him since he's my real father... But I didn't sense any love in him... And as for Daemon... Sure, I wanted him dead before... But now that I think about it, I guess it was better for him to keep living... So he could live with what he'd done. But it's too late now."

"Well, at least he can't make any more monsters, or hurt any more children," said Cloud.

"But there's still Hojo," said Rena. "There's nothing to stop him making more monsters if we don't do something."

"You're right," nodded Cloud. "Meanwhile, we'll need to figure out how to draw out Sephiroth and get rid of him for good. Um, anyway... I'll go talk to the others and see about gathering everyone here for a meeting. See you soon."

"See ya," said Rena as Cloud left the Church. Rena crouched down in front of the flowers, touching one of them as she went deep in thought. Somehow she knew that she still didn't have all the information about her past.

Later, she heard another set of footsteps. Luke joined her side near the flowers.

"I heard you were normal again," he said.

"Me, normal?" asked Rena.

"Well, close enough," replied Luke. "You're not trying to destroy all existence at the moment. Oh, here. Yuffie said you'd be missing this."

He handed Rena the Bahamut Materia.

"Oh, thanks," she said as she accepted the glowing ball. "Cloud gave this to me years ago... Before I joined Shinra. He said to use it if things got really heated. Some of the other infantry men didn't think it was right that a female should have such a powerful Materia, so I had to hide it most of the time. I could have summoned Bahamut when all those things happened, but they didn't respect me enough to fear me."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you were going through all that," said Luke. "I'd disposed of my old phone so the Turks couldn't track me. I could have punched Breno for treating you like a whore..."

"Well, I did punish him eventually," said Rena. "You didn't know what was going to happen."

"Sure, but while I was there, I could have looked out for you better," he said. "I guess I understand Vincent better this way..."

"But I'm not Lucrecia," explained Rena. "I'm nothing like her. And what do you mean by that, anyway?" Luke got up and sat on a pew near the flowers and Rena got up and joined him.

"Well, I've known you for years," he said. "And because of our circumstances, I feel a connection. Even though we may not consider ourselves human, our feelings are what make us human."

"Is this going somewhere?" asked Rena nervously.

"Yeah," answered Luke. "The thing is... I like you. A lot. I can't stop thinking about you..."

Breno was standing by the Church doors, which were open just a crack. He peeked through and he could hear every word. He wanted to check on her, and his timing proved disastrous for his ears. And Magan was on spying duty for Tseng, and she was on the roof, near the hole.

"You've been through a lot," Luke continued. "And I feel that it's not right for you to be alone. If you had someone by your side, someone strong and caring... Well, I'd like to be that person."

Breno barely held his tongue. He wanted to scream out for Rena not to go out with this guy. And Magan didn't know what she felt. Was it relief or despair?

And Rena was more gobsmacked than all of them.

"Well, you're a great guy," she said. "You're handsome, sexy... You care a lot. You do everything with your whole heart in it. And it seems you wear your heart on your sleeve. I wish I could accept..."

"Then, please accept," said Luke.

"But look at me," said Rena. "I can barely contain my powers, and I've got a ghost living inside me. This is a bit soon... I'd like some time to think about it."

"Take all the time you need," said Luke, disappointed. He tried not to let it show.

"It's not a 'no'," Rena assured him. "It's just that it would be hard for us to work out with so much conflict in our lives."

"As long as you think about it," said Luke as he headed out the door. Breno hid behind a corner just in time. And Rena felt that something was off, so she used her heat vision to find two red figures, one behind a corner of the Church, and another on the roof. Changing back to her normal vision, she said, "Alright, you two. I know who you are. Breno, I'm really not into you. And Magan... You made your thoughts clear to me years ago. So... Both of you... FUCK OFF!"

"You can't be with him!" Breno shouted back. "He's not for you!"

"I didn't say yes," said Rena. "I haven't even made a decision. And you're not for me, either! Don't make me call Bahamut!"

"Fine!" yelled Breno. "Slag..."

"I HEARD THAT!" Rena yelled. "HERE COMES THE BIG DRAGON!"

Magan disappeared, and Breno ran very fast as soon as the great dragon Bahamut swooped him.

Later that evening, Rena opened up the doors to the Church, sat in the doorway, and lit up a cigarette. Each drag helped her relax a little bit. She hadn't smoked in a while. She leaned her head back against the door as the slight head rush washed over her. She'd made amendments to her clothing, swapping the standard shoulder guards for the ones she'd worn before changing into the uniform. She hadn't bothered to fix the tearing at the back of the uniform. Her wings would only rip through the fabric again. She tossed away the scarf around the collar of the tunic, revealing the collar and a white undershirt. She traded the Shinra gloves for her gauntlets and open finger gloves. As the final touch, she tied her black head scarf around her head, tying it at the left side of her face, the way she always liked it. It was similar to Yuffie's, but since Rena wasn't a ninja, she wore hers differently. Satisfied with her personalised outfit, she continued her smoking, wondering when the others would appear. The air outside was humid and stuffy. Midgar was going through summer, and had a cold spell. Living beneath the plate kept out the sun, but the metal kept in the heat, causing a humid affect. You would never really notice unless you weren't used to it. Soon her comrades arrived, seating themselves all over the place, while she never moved from her spot. Instead, she lit up another cigarette.

"I'm glad you're all here," she said. "I've been thinking, and I think the best way for me to conquer this _thing_... Is if you all fight me."

"Fight you?" questioned Tifa. "You don't want that."

"You all know I'm not the villain here," said Rena as she took another drag and blew out the smoke. "But I'm harbouring one. This cannot continue. I can't live in the Church forever. I'm not suited to the life of a hermit. Sephiroth wants to use me for his own resurrection, but he can't if he can't use my body. I have noticed so many differences in my abilities that I know which ones are those of an Ancient, and those with the heart of a dragon. And none of these have taught me Supernova. I even know Octaslash, and I've never even used it. No, Sephiroth must go."

"We can fight you with all our might," said Barret. "But if we don't hold back, you'll be killed."

"You mustn't hold back," said Rena. "But I will, then you'll know that none of the attacks are mine. All I have to do is never forget who I am. But who am I? This is a key question, because there are so many things that could define me."

"Well, it takes courage to suggest what you have just suggested," said Red. "So, you're courageous. Powerful. A fast learner. But most importantly, you are Rena."

"Alright, good," said Rena. "I have an idea. If you weaken this body of mine, I just might be able to tear myself away from Sephiroth. Literally. My being here has delayed his progress, but it will catch up with a vengeance. So don't think for one second that you're fighting me. I'll be fighting him from the inside while you fight him from the outside. And once I'm free, we'll deliver the final blow."

"I hope you know what you're doin'," said Barret, shaking his head.

"Trust me," said Rena. "If things get hot, don't be afraid to summon. And if the Turks are nearby, let them in on it. But since they are a branch of Shinra, I want to be as far away from them as possible, since that whole thing with the scientists and Rufus was just a plan to get me captured again. I know what they're thinking."

"We'll do everything we can," said Cloud. "When do you want to do this?"

"Immediately," replied Rena. "No more delays. Follow after me, now!"

She bounded out of the Church, and everyone followed. She used the roof of the Church to get to the top of the plate, and as she did so, Sephiroth made haste in his possession. AVALANCHE stayed on her tail and watched in horror as a black wing emerged from the right hand side of her back and curled around her. When the wing uncurled around her, in her place was Cloud's dreaded enemy.

"We meet again," said Sephiroth, grinning menacingly. "Challenge me, if you dare!"


	13. Gone with Sephiroth

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

Suggested songs:

Paramore – Decode

Kilswitch Engage – My Curse

Takeharu Ishimoto – Combat (Crisis Core)

Nobuo Uematsu – One Winged Angel (FFVII)

**Chapter 13: Gone with Sephiroth**

"I'm going to send you to the Lifestream," said Cloud with a glare, as he readied himself in his fighting stance. "And you will _stay _there!"

Sephiroth chuckled.

"How will you do that when my resurrection is complete?" he asked. "My power is combined with Rena's, making me unbeatable."

"How can you be so sure?" Yuffie snorted. "You haven't tested that theory yet!"

"I would love to test it on you insects!" Sephiroth leered.

"And we'd love to kick yo' ass!" Barret remarked. Sephiroth chuckled again. His apparent overconfidence earned him cold glares from Vincent and Luke. Vincent hated Sephiroth on so many levels. And now, Luke had a new reason to hate said villain.

"You have no honour!" Luke growled. "You body-snatching bastard! You haven't won at all! You're only there because Rena tricked you! She wasn't going to give you the satisfaction of turning her into a hermit! She was the bait to draw you out!"

"You think she won?" remarked Sephiroth with a smirk. "I have full control of her body, and you don't think I've won? Say it again once I've caused absolute destruction!"

With a nod from Cloud, everyone pounced on him. Sephiroth deflected all attacks, and retaliated with his own. He attempted to decapitate them all in one swing, but some ducked, others backflipped away from the long blade.

"What's the matter?" asked Sephiroth, mockingly. "Right now, the way you're fighting, it's as if you're poking a snail through the shell, but you're too squeamish to touch the soft flesh inside it. What, you don't want to hurt the girl?"

Cloud glared loathingly at Sephiroth. Yuffie huffed in frustration.

"Shut up!" she yelled at the silver-haired swordsman. Her voice mirrored the exasperation of the group, because they all knew it was true.

Meanwhile, Rena tried desperately not to allow her mind to succumb to the control. She knew they were holding back, even though she specifically told them not to. She was in dark chains, slowly being dragged into a dark abyss. She felt an urge to use her abilities to destroy everything around her, but she knew she had to hold back. The more power she held back, the less power Sephiroth would have.

Cloud and Sephiroth charged towards each other and their swords clashed. They both fought hard, searching for an opening. They'd swing at each other, and then their swords would lock and grind against each other. Luke used that to strike at Sephiroth with his own sword. Sephiroth swung around and pushed Luke onto his back with a push of his sword. Yuffie threw her over-sized Shuriken at him, which lodged itself into his left shoulder. Sephiroth growled in pain.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAGH! YUFFIE!" Rena yelled, even though she knew she couldn't be heard by anyone and even though she said not to hold back. But she didn't know that she'd feel the pain.

Sephiroth turned and pulled out the giant piece of metal and threw it back at Yuffie, hoping to hit her. Yuffie backflipped away from the flying star and picked it up swiftly. Vincent used this opportunity to fire dozens of shots at Sephiroth, which sent Rena recoiling at the contact, tugging at the chains around her arms and wrists. Sephiroth teleported himself towards Vincent, ready to cut him in half. Vincent blocked with the barrel of his gun, and locked eyes with his enemy. Red XIII charged into Sephiroth from the side, and jumped onto him, tearing into his chest like a savage dog, and growling like one. Sephiroth flung him off and swiftly stood up.

"What is going on?" he demanded. "I don't feel any stronger now than I ever did. Where is the POWER?"

Rena fought back the dark shadows trying to take her down. Sephiroth's hatred and rage made it harder for her to remember who she was. She needed help, but what more could her friends do from the outside?

"Shove your power up yo'..." began Barret as he fired his gattling gun at Sephiroth without holding back. Tifa was feeling pumped and once Barret was done, she laid into Sephiroth like you wouldn't believe. Even though she could be sliced in seconds, her courage and maternal instincts clouded all doubts. She ducked and weaved through Sephiroth's assault and used all her limit breaks as she kicked and punched the snot out of that bastard. Stepping back, he looked up to be met with Cid's lance connecting heavily with his face.

Sephiroth recoiled, surprised at his weakness. That girl's body was draining him. He had to drain some back. Rena was now fighting Sephiroth's mind, which was just an apparition to her. Their sword duel had began, even though the chains continued to pull her down.

"I'll show you what happens when you kill my mother and then try to drag me down!" she growled through clenched teeth. "I never got to meet her, thanks to you! You're no father of mine!"

Sephiroth flew to a higher building to recover. His opponents were not letting up, however. They had a friend to save, after all. Sephiroth clutched his head, feeling a massive headache throbbing through every part of his brain.

A light parted the dark clouds that had formed over Midgar. Cloud and crew continued to fight Sephiroth as rain began to fall. Rena saw a strange white light in the darkness. Two hands came down; one male, one female. Rena looked up to see whose hands they were. A woman who she knew was Aerith, and the man had dark hair and glowing blue eyes. He wore the uniform of a SOLDIER 1st Class.

"Take our hands," said Aerith. "We're here to help."

"A friend of Cloud is a friend of mine," said the man with a grin. "Zack, nice to meet ya."

Rena was speechless as she accepted the hands of the ghosts. The chains broke as she was pulled out of the abyss.

Sephiroth screamed in pain as he doubled over. The group paused and watched. Two black dragon wings emerged from his back, while the feathered wing remained. Down his back, a black line formed, and then it opened. Rena slowly tore herself from the shell of Sephiroth. She still saw the vision of Aerith and Zack pulling her out of the darkness. Rena was in her second form, with the blonde hair, black horns and claws, pointed ears, and her head scarf pulled over half her face like a bandit's mask. She used her wings to get out of the shell, freeing her legs. The vision of Zack and Aerith faded, and Rena was back in reality. Sephiroth's back healed shut, but he was nothing more than a shell. She took to the air and used Aurora Flare on the living shell. The lavender flames engulfed him and once again his body was taken to the Lifestream, while he moaned in agony. When she landed, she looked up to where Sephiroth had gone.

"And stay there," she said. "You troublemaker..." Once she changed back, her body caught up with her and she realised how injured she was. Her legs gave way beneath her, and Luke swiftly moved to catch her as she fell forward.

Magan, Reno and Rude watched from a shadow on a building.

"So it was all Sephiroth," said Rude. "So Rena's not a threat to anyone."

"We don't know that for sure," replied Magan. "Regardless of the circumstances, our orders are clear."

"You're so hard," said Reno. "How much harm can she do at this time? She can barely stand up."

"You guys used to care about following orders no matter what," said Magan. "We can't afford to worry about ethics."

"Only because you don't like her," retorted Reno. Magan glared at him.

'I did,' she thought. 'Then she changed... Even before she was made a monster...'

"The Turks... are watching...," mumbled Rena as she fell unconcious. She used the last of her strength for her heat vision.

"The battle has taken us far from 7th Heaven," said Luke. "What do we do now?"

"I know a place where she'll be safe," said Cloud. "The lady, Elmyra Gainsborough. But first, let's lose the Turks. They obviously don't need us as allies anymore, so they're up to their old tricks again..."

"Still watching as usual," mused Yuffie. "The eyes and ears of Shinra. Rena's obviously still a threat..."

**I've only been editing words and adding to sentences. Nothing special, really.**


	14. Reflections Part 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and I am not affiliated with Square Enix. I only own my original characters. Any similarities between this fic and others are purely coincidental.

This is my first Final Fantasy fic to ever be published. If you don't like, don't read. My aim is to show a perspective that is different from others. Such is my writing style.

**This is the first of the clarification chapters. More flashbacks, more things to be revealed! I just hope you all have the stomach for it. I'll probably barf just writing it. Thanks for all the helpful reviews, guys. Appreciate it. I will show my Aussie talent by hopefully giving you what you want. I'm not going to backtrack through the earlier chapters. Instead, I will present more insights from more than one character. I hope I don't end the story without developing the characters properly... Hmm... On with the story! And this is why it's rated M...**

**Chapter 14: Reflections Part 1**

Elmyra was finishing up with cleaning the kitchen when she heard a knock at the door. Frowning, and wondering who it could be, she scuttled to the front door to answer it. In shock, she was ready to slam the door right in Cloud's face.

"You!" she exclaimed.

"Don't forget us!" chimed in Yuffie. Cloud face-palmed himself at the older woman's greeting, and didn't know if he should be embarrassed by Yuffie or just be annoyed.

"Hello, Elmyra," said Cloud. "Can we come in?"

"Please?" added Yuffie. "Our friend is injured and we're too far from Sector 7..."

"Your friend?" asked Elmyra. Luke walked over with Rena in his arms. Old age and maternal instincts fooled her eyes and she gasped. "Aerith?"

"Not quite," replied Luke. And then he thought to himself, 'Although, Aerith might still look this good if she lived longer...'

"Come in, all of you," Elmyra practically ordered. "Sit down, sit down..."

They did as they were told. Luke sat down, still holding Rena in a cradling position. She was still out cold. Elmyra crouched down and examined her.

"She looks a lot like my Aerith," she muttered. "What happened to her?" She frowned when she noticed small black dragon wings.

"Shinra experimented on her," said Tifa. "And well, we had a run-in with an old enemy. Rena was at the forefront of it all. And as hard as we tried, we couldn't protect her from the enemy."

"You don't have to be vague with me," said Elmyra. "Just tell me exactly what happened."

"Well," Tifa began, knowing that shit could fly if Cloud said anything, "Rena, the girl who Luke's holding, was conceived artificially from Aerith... and Sephiroth, long after he killed her and we killed him. But their... stuff was kept in storage for a long time. Anyway, she was adopted out, then Geostigma took her adopted parents. She would have been only a toddler, at least. She was in an orphanage, we saved her and the other children, she joined Shinra, she left Shinra, they stuck her in a lab, she escaped the lab, and turned out like that. Then Sephiroth came back and wouldn't piss off. He possessed her so he could stay in the land of the living. So, we had to beat him out of her. Literally."

"So you all beat her up?" questioned Elmyra, not getting any happier.

"Is that all you were listening to?" asked Luke. "She told us not to hold back so she could break free. We don't like this anymore than you do."

"I see," replied Elmyra. "Wonders will never cease. Aerith had a test-tube child and she never knew..."

'She knew,' thought Luke. 'That was how Rena could talk to her... I wonder what else Ancients are capable of...'

"I guess I'm happy that I can see a piece of Aerith in my old age," said Elmyra. "But for Shinra to give her Sephiroth as a biological father... Disgusting. I never liked that company. Always ruining lives. It was always men from Shinra breaking Aerith's heart. That young man... Zack. He disappeared for four years before he died. During the day, Aerith never let it show that it bothered her. But late at night, I could always hear her crying herself to sleep..."

Rena began to wake up and was listening in at the mention of her biological mother's name.

"What I find absolutely unforgivable is that no-one in Shinra had the balls to tell her that Zack had died," Elmyra continued. "Those curs had gunned him down and then acted as though he didn't exist!"

Cloud was getting tired of hearing about it. He was there when it happened. He was too weak with mako addiction to help his friend. He'd watched as bullets pierced Zack's body, and how his dark-haired friend collapsed to the ground like a heap of lead. He was the one who was smeared in Zack's blood. And it was all because of Sephiroth...

"Oh, but she knew anyway," said Elmyra. "That's what really amazed me. She knew even though no-one told her. What she told me, well... I could hardly believe it."

"I can believe it," Rena spoke up softly. Everyone looked at her. "She felt it. I know because I feel it when somebody dies. It aches... It's like a silent scream emitted from the Planet... I felt it... Back in that orphanage..."

"Aerith used to say things like that," said Elmyra.

"You knew her?" asked Rena, having not heard the first part of the conversation.

"I raised her," replied the older woman. They locked eyes. Elmyra definitely knew then that the girl before her was of the body of Aerith. This girl, Rena, had the same look of gentleness and understanding as Aerith. She also detected a tainted innocence, a trait that Aerith never carried until the time before her death. But why Elmyra saw this, she wasn't sure.

"I'll go make the bed," said Elmyra after an awkward silence. "You'll need to rest, otherwise you won't get better." She left the room and headed up the stairs.

"Right, that went well," remarked Cloud. "She sure took a shine to you, Rena."

"Yeah, she sure did," replied Rena as she rested her head on Luke's shoulder.

Later on in the evening, Rena was resting on the bed that Elmyra had made for her. Her friends arranged for someone to sit with her and rotate to the next person. Tifa was first. She pulled a chair from another room and sat near the bed, fussing over bandages and making sure the pillow beneath Rena's head was comfortable enough. The younger woman murmured and shifted slightly, unconsciously turning her head to face the wall away from Tifa.

'You were no taller than my hips when we met,' thought Tifa with a sigh. 'Now you're taller than me, and still as fragile as ever... Sometimes I wonder if you were easy to control because you never confronted your demons... When Luke comes in to watch her, I'd better have a word with Elmyra... Maybe she can help...'

Tifa could still remember the day when Vincent had brought in an eleven-year-old boy who looked like a mini version of him.

"Vincent! It's not everyday you walk in with a kid latched to you," she said. The boy hid behind Vincent shyly. Tifa knelt down to look at him. "What's your name?"

"Luke," the boy replied softly.

"Nice to meet you," said Tifa with a gentle smile. "I'm Tifa. And I see you've already met Vincent."

"I found him just outside of Sector 7, on the other side of the gate," said Vincent. "He was trying to climb over the ruins of the plate that used to be there. It was clear that he'd run away from somewhere that was traumatising to him."

"Where did you run from?" asked Tifa, trying to hold Luke's gaze.

"The orphanage," replied Luke shyly.

"The orphanage?" Tifa questioned.

"It would be a long way from Midgar," said Vincent. "In any case, I haven't heard of it. Something definitely isn't right. This boy looks exactly like me, and for him to run away suggests that Shinra somehow has a hand in it."

"What's your full name, Luke?" asked Tifa.

"Luke Grimoire Valentine," replied Luke.

Tifa and Vincent exchanged puzzled looks.

"Do you know who your parents are?" Tifa continued to question.

"I was told I have no parents," replied Luke. "I was only told my name. I was also told that I have to thank all the scientists of Shinra for giving me life, whatever that means."

Vincent turned Luke to look at him as Tifa stood up straight.

"You don't have parents," said Vincent. "But you're related to me. Call me a brother if you want..." 'But you're a clone, and that's too hard to say right now...' Vincent completed the sentence with the unspoken words.

"You spent a long time on foot," said Tifa. "You sure went the distance, Luke. But you don't have to worry anymore. We'll look after you. We protect children."

"That's what they said," replied Luke with a frown.

"Who's 'they'?" asked Tifa.

"The grown-ups at the orphanage," answered Luke. "They say they are there to protect us, but they beat us around and the men put their dicks in the girl's... uh... without their permission. They feel us up when we're trying to go to sleep, and it makes me feel..."

"Violated," Tifa finished the sentence. "Well, we don't do that here. I've helped to raise children for years, and even you look around. See Marlene over there? You can see that there is no fear to be seen in her. She feels safe here, and you will too."

"But I can't relax yet!" exclaimed Luke worriedly. "My friend is still there! I asked her to run away with me, but she was too scared. She thought they would kill her if she tried. Can we go back for her? Please?"

"Of course," said Tifa. "I'll just have to make a few calls. Vincent, how do you feel about vigilante justice?"

"When children are involved, I would love nothing better," said Vincent, with a gleam in his eye. Tifa got out her cell phone and called Cloud immediately.

"Yeah?" came the cool voice on the other end.

"Cloud, I need you here immediately," said Tifa. "Vincent and I have heard that there are kids in trouble..."

The old crew were reunited in just under an hour. Tifa relayed the story to the rest of the group. There wasn't one member whose blood wasn't boiling. Everyone smelled a Shinra rat, but didn't think that child molestation was something that Shinra was into. On the other hand, AVALANCHE wouldn't put anything past them. They took Cid's airship outside of Midgar, with Luke sitting at the front to tell them where to find the orphanage. It seemed that all that time that Luke had wandered from the orphanage, he had taken time to make note of all the landmarks on his way to Midgar.

When Cloud had brought Rena to the airship that day, Tifa saw how shaken the girl was, and she understood Luke's urgency. Rena was quiet as a mouse, and flinched at the slightest hint of physical contact. Tifa couldn't physically comfort her, so she used words instead. Upon seeing the orphanage go up in smoke, she wondered what Vincent and Cloud had done to the place, and what became of the tutors. The men never spoke of it since that day, but Tifa was sure that they thought about it from time to time.

As Tifa kept watch over Rena's sleeping form, she remembered how rough the first nights were. She put Rena's needs before her own when it came to bed time. Rena refused to allow men in the room when she was in bed. If Cloud or Barret so much as walked past the room, in the hallway of 7th Heaven, Rena would scream hysterically. It got to the point that Tifa would have to be there until the girl fell asleep. Tifa didn't find out until Rena told her a month later that when the men went past, she didn't see Cloud or Barret. Instead, she saw that... creature who sneaked into her room after lights out. Tifa was soon allowed to hug her and soothe her whenever she woke up in a cold sweat. Tifa was also there when Rena would wake up in tears. Not because she dreamt of the molestation, but because she dreamed about her mother. Tifa asked her what she looked like. Rena's answer was that her mother had brown hair, blue eyes, and the rest was blurry, except that the colour pink was involved. Tifa thought that the description could mean anyone at the time. But the recent events made the girl's description much clearer. This time, as Tifa reflected on the years gone by, she realised that Rena had dreamt of Aerith. Rena's tears weren't mournful. They were tears of relief, because Aerith was helping her to heal. That was what she did.

And perhaps it was the presence of the Last Ancient that helped Rena to eventually go to sleep without Tifa's presence.

**Is this AU? Of course it is! But it's AU with a legitimate timeline. Rena was conceived during Final Fantasy VII. Sephiroth's sperm was already in storage, and while Aerith was being held by Hojo, her ovum was extracted. But more on that later. She's a toddler in the Advent Children timeline. That's where Geostigma comes into it. Mmmkay? Are my edited chapters still too vague? Well, I'm sorry, I LIKE IT! Next is the second part of Chapter 14. This is where you will learn the fate of the orphanage staff. Vincent and Cloud go full vigilante on their ass... Or not. Anyway, I haven't typed it up yet – obviously. But you wanted to know, right? Read and review, but please don't complain. I know what I'm doing, alright? All I ask is that you trust my judgement. During my temporary hiatus, I thought of some more ideas which you might like. Also coming to a computer screen near you: Crisis Core references! **


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